Home > The Danger of Nuclear War & The Imperative of Abolition

The Danger of Nuclear War & The Imperative of Abolition

by Open-Publishing - Saturday 6 August 2005

Nuclear Wars and conflicts

Mayors Campaign Hiroshi TAKA(Japan)

Dear friends,

Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Let me take this opportunity to extend my warmest greetings of solidarity to the movements for peace and justice in the USA. Your courageous actions for peace and against war, prior to and in the midst of the outrageous US military attack on Iraq, showed us that there was another face of the United States, which represents gentle, peace-loving USA. It has greatly helped to build a sense of global unity for peace. I wish you every success in your campaign at this crucial time.

The topic I was given is about the "Mayors Initiative". I have to tell you beforehand that I do not represent the Mayors Initiative. The organization I belong to sponsors every year an event called "World Conference against A and H Bombs, and is running a campaign entitled "Abolition of Nuclear Weapons, Now", the signature campaign launched by the World Conference last year.

However, we do support the Initiative launched by the "Mayors for Peace". We believe that peace movement everywhere in the world should grasp a new condition that is emerging before us, develop cooperation between one another and build up momentum for the abolition of nuclear weapons in each given country as well as worldwide. In support of the Initiative, our peace march visits local governments one by one to urge for their support of the Initiative. In turn, the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki give us their explicit support of our "Abolition of Nuclear Weapons, Now" campaign, as you see in our poster.

The essence of the Mayors Initiative is to aim to attain the abolition of nuclear weapons through four stages, placing the maximum emphasis on getting an actual process of the abolition to start at the next NPT review conference in May 2005 in New York. Its first step was to work together with NGOs at the 3rd NPT Prep Com in April-May this year to lobby the governments representatives. The 2nd step is that all its member cities are encouraged to organize various forms of Hiroshima-Nagasaki Days actions in this coming August 6 and 9. The third step is to organize a rally of 1 million people in New York during the next NPT Conference, in parallel with lobbying. The goal is to have the NPT Review Conference in 2010 to adopt a comprehensive program leading to the abolition of nuclear weapons by 2020. If this will not happen, the proposed action is to start a "Hiroshima-Nagasaki Process", similar to the Ottawa Process banning anti-personnel mines.

As illustrated above, the Mayors Initiative is a very grassroots oriented action, which we warmly welcome. Then, what conditions do we have to promote the campaign for the total abolition of nuclear weapons?

First, it is important to note that the complete abolition of nuclear weapons is an international agreement, which the nuclear Five have already accepted as an "unequivocal undertaking". It is therefore their obligation to implement it.

The Bush Administration has actually shelved it, using the so-called "war on terrorism" and "danger of the proliferation of WMD" as excuse. And it has even started developing new nuclear weapons, such as mini nukes. Mr. Bolton, assistant secretary of State, in fact, declared at the 3rd Prep Com that the non-compliance on the proliferation alone is the problem, and he further demanded, "We cannot divert attention from the violations we face by focusing on article 6 issues, which do not exist".

But this kind of logic can no long convince the international community. If there is a danger of nuclear weapons falling in the hand of terrorists, it is all the more urgent to totally ban of the nuclear weapons. In fact, in the session of UN General Assembly in December last year, a resolution calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons moved by the New Agenda Coalition was supported by 133 governments, as opposed to the mere 6 countries that cast opposition votes. They are India, Pakistan, the United States, Israel, the UK and France. The result of the adoption of a resolution on the reduction of non-strategic weapons, also moved by NAC, was even more striking. It was supported by 128, while opposition votes were only four. I want to add that in the 3rd Prep Com, Canada, a NATO member, also took a similar position, emphasizing that the sincere effort of the nuclear weapons states towards the elimination of nuclear weapons is the only way to gain trust from the non-nuclear parties.

Second, the experience of global opposition to the war on Iraq added a new prospect to the anti-nuclear movement. In August 8 last year, Mayor Itcho Ito of Nagasaki said to the delegates from UFPJ-USA, CND-UK and New Zealand, "I ask you to run again an action you did in opposition to war on Iraq, this time for the elimination of nuclear weapons!" In fact, in 2002 into 2003, mounting opposition to war all around the world pressed one national government after another into opposing the imminent military attack on Iraq. Though the US-UK finally rushed into war, they had to do it as illegal action against the UN Charter, supported only by a handful. They got a war, and the peace movement got hearts and trust of the people.

Third, we also need to note that the threat or use of force, including the nuclear blackmail, has proved useless in resolving the problem of nuclear proliferation. The lesson we can draw from recent events is that the only pursuit for the peaceful resolution really works. The whole process of the Iraq problem is clear evidence. The UN inspection, with internationally consensus support, had actually solved the problem before the military attack was launched. If the UN-IAEA inspection had continued, the international community could have opened a new page by setting a new model of resolving the problem of proliferation of WMD by peaceful means, based on the UN consensus.

The nuclear development of North Korea is also the case. When the US leaders blackmailed North Korea with nuclear weapons, calling it an axis of "Evil Empire" and pressing Japan to serve as a forward base of the US attack, the problem further deteriorated. Only when talks between 6 parties started, a prospect for a nuclear weapon-free Korean Peninsula opened.

So, if we want to mover for a nuclear-weapon free world before too late, now is the time to take action. The next NPT Review Conference on May 2-28 in NY will be an opportunity, which we should make the best use of to get the "Unequivocal Undertaking" of the Nuclear Five be implemented.

We will soon open our World Conference against A and H Bombs on Aug. 2-9 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Diplomats from NAC and Non-Aligned countries, the mayor of Hiroshima and large number of NGO leaders will come to it.

In the past, we launched an international joint action called "Peace Wave". It was a chain of actions taking place at noon on the UN Day at hundreds of major cities worldwide, starting from Hiroshima and Nagasaki and moving the action site westwards as the earth rotated. The common slogan, then, was the abolition of nuclear weapons. A peace march carrying the flame taken from A-bomb conflagration from Hiroshima and Nagasaki to New York was another action we launched in 1988 on the occasion of SSD3. We need to develop many stimulating and exciting ideas.

As a Japanese movement, we also need to build a coordinated action that will unite Japanese peace movements. However, a big movement becomes possible only when we come to grips with a sustained grassroots work to build up public opinion in support of our goal. For this, we are running a nationwide signature campaign in support of the appeal: "Abolition of Nuclear Weapons, Now!" We are hoping that this signature campaign, together with any other campaigns of a similar goal, will become one common form of action, internationally. And on the basis of enhanced public support, we want to send hundreds, and maybe more than a thousand people from Japan to New York in May next year to submit tens of millions of signatures to the NPT Review Conference, and join you in your action as, this time, "the first Super Power". Thank you.

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