Friends Peace Center (CAP)                                                              

Apdo. 328, Sabanilla

San José, Costa Rica

Central America

January 8th, 2009

Dear  Members of Whittier Meeting,

This letter is being written to introduce you to the Friends Peace Center located in downtown San José, Costa Rica, and invite your participation in an important upcoming event involving the Quaker community.

Friends Peace Center, commonly referred to as CAP, was founded in 1983 by a group of Costa Rican and United States citizens looking for constructive methods of promoting peace and social justice. Over the past 25 years we have been a community resource for training on nonviolence and human rights, have collaborated with other human rights and environmental organizations to preserve Costa Rica’s resources, and have been involved in political lobbies supporting the minority voice in Central America. Throughout our history we have adhered to Quaker values and to this day we hold a close relationship with the San José Quaker Meeting, which is held in our office every week.

In March 2009, San José will be the location of the annual International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW) conference. The goal of ICBUW is to ban the military use of uranium and other radioactive materials by United Nations countries. These radioactive and chemically toxic weapons were first used on a large scale by the US and UK in the Gulf War in 1991, subsequently in Bosnia and Yugoslavia by NATO. These weapons have a devastating and long lasting effect on soldiers, their families and in the communities where they have been used. (For more details, please read below, or go to: http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/en/a/151.html).

As the only Latin American organization that is a member of ICBUW, CAP will be organizing and hosting this event. We have invited representatives from government and non-governmental organizations throughout Latin American to attend, as well as experts from around the globe to discuss the effects of DU. As it is ICBUW’s goal to pass a ban in the United Nations by 2010, this event is an important opportunity to raise awareness in the Americas and to make a unified stand against the use of these arms.

We would like to ask your support as we organize this important event. As a small organization, we have an enormous task at hand to raise the funds necessary to put on an international conference.

You can participate in a number of ways:

• Spread the word: please forward this information as widely as possible and especially to people who you believe are interested.
• Attend the event: we encourage you to become actively involved in this issue, starting with your attendance at the conference.
• Donate: we need contributions from individual Monthly Meetings to make the conference a success.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to the conference in March, learn more about ICBUW and depleted uranium, or find out more about us and our other current projects please feel free to email us or call our office.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Isabel Macdonald, Coordinator

The Friends Peace Center

ducongress@amigosparalapaz.org

(506) 2222-1400, 2233-6168

Background information: Depleted uranium (DU) is the by-product of uranium refineries and nuclear power plants. While it is not used in nuclear weaponry, it is currently used to coat missiles and small ammunitions, giving them greater capacity for penetration of steel.

For the past two decades, DU has been used in military operations by the United States and Great Britain. Weapons containing DU were deployed in Iraq and Kuwait during the Gulf War of 1991, in Kosovo during the Kosovo Conflict of 1999, and currently are being used in Iraq.

These arms have also illegally found their way into the hands of international weapons traders. While DU has properties that are strategically valuable for military operations, its long term effects are devastating for both the people and the environment in the impacted areas.

Upon impact, the uranium coating of these weapons becomes a fine powder, which then becomes suspended in the air; inhalation of this dust and contaminated groundwater causes radiation poisoning of both soldiers and civilians.

DU has chemical and radiological toxicity that targets the kidneys and lungs, causes severe birth defects, and greatly increases the incidents of cancer among those affected. The particles of DU that remain are so finite as to make cleanup essentially impossible, and with a half-life of 4.5 billion years, the effects of this toxin will not soon disappear.

The use of these weapons is one of the worst violations of human rights of our time, as soldiers exposed to DU are seldom informed of the risk or given adequate protection, and civilians are left with radioactive contamination that will affect them and their families forever.