Hiroshima mayor meets with senior U.N. officials in Geneva, urges action on nuclear abolition
Apr. 26, 2013
by Michiko Tanaka, Staff Writer
GENEVA--On April 22, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui engaged in dialogue with senior officials of the United Nations and other figures in Geneva, Switzerland, where the Second Preparatory Committee for the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference is now taking place. For four days, until April 25, the mayor will call on state delegates to strengthen their nations’ efforts for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Mr. Matsui, along with Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue and Yasuyoshi Komizo, the chairperson of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, visited United Nations Headquarters in Europe to meet with Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, its director general. He handed a letter of request addressed to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Mr. Tokayev. The letter urges the United Nations to help spearhead the early realization of a nuclear weapons convention.
Mr. Matsui said, “As long as we have a paradigm in which nations are plagued by distrust and seek to defend themselves to protect their national interests, the threat of nuclear weapons will never disappear from the earth.” He called for the United Nations to press national leaders to view human beings as inherently good and abolish nuclear weapons, which he described as “an absolute evil.”
Mr. Tokayev is from Kazakhstan, where the former Soviet Union repeatedly carried out nuclear tests. He replied, “I empathize with the feelings of the A-bomb cities. I would like to pursue our common goal of eliminating nuclear weapons.”
On April 22, Mr. Matsui also spoke with Mari Amano, the ambassador of Japan to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.
(Originally published on April 23, 2013)
GENEVA--On April 22, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui engaged in dialogue with senior officials of the United Nations and other figures in Geneva, Switzerland, where the Second Preparatory Committee for the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference is now taking place. For four days, until April 25, the mayor will call on state delegates to strengthen their nations’ efforts for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Mr. Matsui, along with Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue and Yasuyoshi Komizo, the chairperson of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, visited United Nations Headquarters in Europe to meet with Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, its director general. He handed a letter of request addressed to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Mr. Tokayev. The letter urges the United Nations to help spearhead the early realization of a nuclear weapons convention.
Mr. Matsui said, “As long as we have a paradigm in which nations are plagued by distrust and seek to defend themselves to protect their national interests, the threat of nuclear weapons will never disappear from the earth.” He called for the United Nations to press national leaders to view human beings as inherently good and abolish nuclear weapons, which he described as “an absolute evil.”
Mr. Tokayev is from Kazakhstan, where the former Soviet Union repeatedly carried out nuclear tests. He replied, “I empathize with the feelings of the A-bomb cities. I would like to pursue our common goal of eliminating nuclear weapons.”
On April 22, Mr. Matsui also spoke with Mari Amano, the ambassador of Japan to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.
(Originally published on April 23, 2013)
