Under the treaty signed Friday, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan committed themselves not to produce, buy,
or allow the deployment of nuclear weapons on their soil.

But the United States, along with Britain and France, refused to
attend the signing ceremony in the Kazakh capital, Almaty, citing a
1992 treaty that Russia signed with four of the five nations that
Moscow claims could allow missiles to be deployed in the region.

In a fresh statement issued Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan
warned that "other international treaties could take precedence over
the provisions of this treaty, and thus obviate the central objective
of creating a zone free of nuclear weapons."

Arms control groups believe the Bush administration is being disingenuous.

"The reason that many of us suspect the U.S. is opposed to this is
more fundamental," the independent Arms Control Association's Daryl G.
Kimball told OneWorld. "This is a very strategic region. The U.S. is
reticent to give up the option of deploying nuclear weapons in this
region in the future."

In May, the journal Foreign Policy named Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan
one of the six most important U.S. military bases in the world. The
base was originally established as a hub for multinational operations
following the September 11th attacks five years ago.

"In addition to its proximity to Afghanistan," the Foreign Policy
article stated, "Manas is located near the immense energy reserves of
the Caspian Basin, as well as the Russian and Chinese frontiers."

According to Jackie Cabasso, who heads up the Western States Legal
Foundation in Oakland, California, "the United states had drawn up a
battle plan for the potential use of nuclear weapons in Iraq and the
Untied States has been involved in planning potential nuclear use
scenarios for Iran."

"The United States is now involved in a massive program to overhaul
its nuclear arsenal," she added. "In fact they're working to replace
every nuclear warhead and all of the existing delivery systems in the
arsenal to ensure prompt precision global strike capabilities. So the
United States is openly using the threatened use of nuclear weapons
around the world."

David Krieger of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation added that members
of the Bush administration "like to talk about expanding the use of
nuclear weapons and talk about the 'preventive use' of nuclear weapons
[but seem] to be negative toward a group of countries trying to create
a ban on nuclear weapons within their territory."

By contrast, arms control experts argue, former Soviet republics in
Central Asia have every reason to want to rid themselves of their
nuclear legacy.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union used a facility at Semipalatinsk
in Kazakhstan to test new nuclear weapons. Between 1949 and 1989
almost 500 nuclear explosions were carried out there, equaling the
explosive power of 20,000 Hiroshima bombs.

According to the country's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, those
explosions caused irreparable damage to the health of more than 1.5
million Kazakh citizens, blighted lives, and rendered vast stretches
of land useless for generations.

Western States Legal Foundation's Cabasso told OneWorld the central
Asian nation has one of the strongest anti-nuclear movements in the world.

She described a visit to Kazakhstan, made in 1990 shortly after the
fall of the Soviet Union.

"It was amazing," Cabasso said. "When we flew from Moscow to the
capital Almaty, there were people on the run-way in traditional
costumes holding signs like 'Let the Generals Build Their Summer
Houses on the Nuclear Test Site.'"

Cabasso said the movement for a nuclear free Central Asia began with a
poet and member of the Soviet Duma named Olzhas Suleimenov. In 1989,
after discovering that some of the underground nuclear tests had
leaked radiation into the atmosphere, he went on television and called
for a mass meeting at the writers' union hall. Over 5,000 people
showed up the next day.

"They organized on a massive scale," Cabasso said. "Ten thousand
copper miners went out on strike, there were billboards at the
airport. Imagine if you had anti-nuclear demonstrations going on
during half-time at the Super Bowl. They were calling for a peaceful
non-nuclear transition to the 21st century back in 1990 and now they
have completed that transition in a way."

The treaty between Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and
Turkmenistan created the first nuclear-weapons free zone in the
Northern Hemisphere. Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the
South Pacific, Southeast Asia, and Africa have already pledged to
remain nuclear free.