192,000 people died
from the bombing of Hiroshima. 'As long
as nuclear weapons exist, it is inevitable
that some country, at some point, will experience
the horror that Hiroshima and Nagasaki already
know.' --Former Hiroshima mayor Takashi
Hiraoka
18/02/2005 — Until we can rid the world
of nuclear weapons nation by nation, we'll
start town by town. That's the strategy
behind the Mayors for Peace project - an
international effort which began with the
mayor of one city, Hiroshima, Japan, who
in 1982 said "never again" to
the suffering his own town endured.
Today, more than 700 mayors from 119 countries
have joined Mayors for Peace.
These mayors know that the end of the cold
war didn't mean the end of the nuclear threat.
The world is still bristling with nearly
36,000 nuclear weapons. The US and Russia
have in excess of 10,000 each. The pressure
on smaller states to develop a nuclear capability
to defend themselves is higher than ever,
and for violent extremists of every ilk,
a nuclear weapon is the ultimate prize.
The nuclear threat has quite literally
scaled down in the last two decades. While
the prospect of an all out exchange of arsenals
between the Soviet Union and the US has
receded, the 15 kilotons of destruction
that obliterated Hiroshima could today be
accomplished with a lunch-box sized bomb.
George Bush talks openly of developing new
"more useable" nuclear weapons.
Even more alarmingly, this years US nuclear
weapons budget talks of spending 100 million
US dollars over the next 5 years on designing
more robust, more 'usable' nuclear weapons.
The prospects of a nuclear weapon actually
being used are perhaps greater today than
during the cold war, when the concept of
Mutually Assured Destruction provided an
effective, if surreally sinister, deterrent.
The only thing that will stop the threat
is the voice of the second superpower: world
opinion. "In any war, it is cities
and the people living in them that suffer.
As Hiroshima and Nagasaki attest, this suffering
becomes total destruction when nuclear weapons
are involved. To protect their citizens'
lives, it is incumbent on all mayors to
make every effort to prevent war and eliminate
nuclear weapons." Mayor Akiba, current
Mayor of Hiroshima, Japan;
"What we need now is for individuals
and communities to mobilise and help put
nuclear disarmament back on the political
agenda" Nicky Davies, Nuclear Disarmament
Campaigner for Greenpeace, "the pressure
has to come up from the streets. Abolishing
nuclear weapons is not a pipe dream - it's
a sensible step toward self-preservation".
In May, 2005, an international meeting
will review the cornerstone treaty for nuclear
disarmament, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT). "To add a community voice
to this meeting, we are asking every Mayor
to sign the statement supporting nuclear
disarmament. We're asking our supporters
worldwide to ask their mayors to sign. And
we're asking them to ask their friends to
ask their mayors to sign".
When nations signed the NPT, they signed
up to a two-way deal. Non-nuclear states
wouldn't seek nuclear weapons, and under
Article 6, those who already had them agreed
to get rid of them.
Mayors for Peace are simply urging nuclear
weapon states to do what they promised.
Until they do so, new countries will continue
to pursue their own nuclear weapon programs;
and the non-proliferation regime, along
with the treaty that created it, will simply
collapse.
Two recent news events have underscored
just how important it is to ramp up demands
for a nuclear-free world. North Korea became
the eight declared nuclear power when it
announced it had produced "enough nuclear
weapons to deter a US attack." North
Korea has missile delivery systems capable
of reaching China, Japan, and, according
to some reports, even the US -- thus threatening
a whole new regional nuclear arms race.
And from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing
plant in the UK comes news that about 30
kilograms of plutonium (66 pounds) is "missing."
That's enough to make about 7 to 8 city-destroying
nuclear weapons.
The only way to stop nuclear weapons is
to stop nuclear weapons: everywhere, with
no exceptions: one rule for all. The best
place to start is at home. Contact your
mayor today.
