U.N. disarmament official looks to Japanese movement for nuclear weapons abolition

As the U.S. Bush administration is publicly opting to use nuclear weapons as part of its military strategy, the United Nations Under Secretary General for disarmament has high expectations for the Japanese anti-nuclear movement to play an even greater role in helping to achieve the elimination of nuclear weapons.

This was reported by Asato Rieko, standing director of the Japan Council against A & H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo), to the board meeting on April 19 after returning from New York.

Asato was in New York as a member of a Japan Gensuikyo delegation which attended the first session of the Preparatory Committee of the 2005 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference along with a delegation of the Confederation of Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Hidankyo).

The two delegations together visited the United Nations and permanent missions of many countries to call on them to take active parts in the effort to get nuclear weapons eliminated.

Receiving the two delegations together at the United Nations, Janantha Dhanapala, U.N. under-secretary general for disarmament, stated that never again must nuclear weapons be used. Noting that what the United Nations can do is limited, Dhanapala stressed that it is essential to rouse international opinion into putting greater pressure on nuclear weapons states to fulfill the promise to "eliminate their nuclear arsenals."

Malaysia's permanent representative to the United Nations, who severely criticized the U.S. "Nuclear Posture Review," told the Japanese delegations that it is very important in the present dangerous circumstances to explicitly express opinions.

Celina Pereira, a Brazilian representative, criticized the nuclear weapons states for not doing enough to abolish nuclear weapons, and expressed her determination as a member of the "New Agenda" group to continue to urge those countries to implement the "unequivocal undertaking to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals." (end)