[A-List] Finland: Kalevi Sorsa

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Letter: Kalevi Sorsa

Kalevi Sorsa (Obituary March 5) played an important part in the launching of
the movement for European Nuclear Disarmament

Monday March 15, 2004
The Guardian

Ken Coates writes ... Kalevi Sorsa (Obituary March 5) played an important
part in the launching of the movement for European Nuclear Disarmament
(END). In 1981, he joined Alva Myrdal in presenting papers for the Rome
consultation which created the conventions indelibly associated with END.
For more than a decade these annual gatherings attracted political activists
and peace campaigners from many countries.

Sorsa's proposals formed part of a wider Scandinavian contribution. The
six-week peace march from Copenhagen to Paris, in the summer of 1981, was
instigated and led by the Scandinavian Women for Peace, and soon inspired
women in Britain to march on the US cruise missile base at Greenham Common.

Sorsa's immediate goal was to prevent "a new spiral in the nuclear arms race
in Europe". How was this to be done? He summed it up in his Rome paper: "I
am convinced that the idea of nuclear-weapons-free zones will come into
focus in regional and sub-regional security efforts. A noteworthy example is
the initiative made by some of our Belgian comrades: for a
nuclear-weapons-free zone including central Europe as well as northern and
southern parts of the continent."

He extended his vision to try to prevent proliferation in the Middle East,
Africa and Latin America, where he viewed the Treaty of Tlatelolco to
establish a nuclear-weapons-free zone throughout the continent as an
important precursor of his proposals.

The Rome meeting involved a wide cross-section of Italian politicians, and
ensured that the first END convention, in Brussels, was launched from an
impressive base of support.