Students join Nagasaki protest against India's N-tests

NAGASAKI, May 17 Kyodo - Some 50 Nagasaki citizens gathered in front of the Peace Statue in Nagasaki on Sunday for an hourlong sit-in, protesting against five underground nuclear tests India conducted last week. Some 20 junior high school students on a school excursion also joined in the sit-in organized by a Nagasaki citizens' group opposed to nuclear testing. Sumiteru Taniguchi, leader of the citizens' group, called for people to raise their voices to create a world free of nuclear weapons at as early a date as possible. Mika Sato, a 14-year-old junior high school student from Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, said, ''I wonder what will happen to Earth if nuclear testing continues.'' The sit-in was the group's 360th, members said, adding that the group has held sit-ins since 1974, the year India exploded its first nuclear device.