Achieving nuclear-weapon-free world is possible, Ban tells Hiroshima ceremony by UN News / Mayors for Peace 11:32am 6th Aug, 2010   Aug 2010    Standing with survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima, Ban ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General paid respect to all those who perished 65 years ago as he stressed that the time has come to realize the dream of a world free of nuclear weapons.    “A more peaceful world can be ours,” Ban Ki-moon said to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony held in Japan.    Mr. Ban, the first UN Secretary-General to take part in the ceremony, was one year old when the atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, resulting in the deaths of more than 200,000 people.    More than 400,000 more people have died – and are continuing to die – since the end of the Second World War from the impacts of those bombs. “Our moment has come,” he said, noting he will convene a Conference on Disarmament in New York in September, where he will push for negotiations towards nuclear disarmament. He also highlighted the need for teaching that “status and prestige belong not to those who possess nuclear weapons, but to those who reject them.”    The Secretary-General arrived in Hiroshima after spending what he described as “a profoundly moving day” in Nagasaki, where he toured the Atomic Bomb Museum and met with a number of survivors.    He said his visit to Nagasaki had strengthened his conviction that nuclear weapons must be outlawed, and he urged all nations to negotiate a nuclear weapons convention at the earliest possible date.    “Together, we are on a journey from ground zero to Global Zero – a world free of weapons of mass destruction. That is the only sane path to a safer world. Let us realize our dream of a world free of nuclear weapons so that our children and all succeeding generations can live in freedom, security and peace,” Mr. Ban stated.    In both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he met with hibakusha, or victims of the bombings. “The suffering was unimaginable and the courage and fortitude had been extraordinary,” he said, describing their devotion to ridding the world of the weapons as inspirational.    Mr. Ban also stressed that abolishing nuclear weapons is “more than our common dream; it is common sense policy.”    The Secretary-General also highlighted the “rising chorus of conscience from civil society,” such as the Mayors for Peace movement, bringing together more than 4,000 mayors from around the world, as well as representatives of the world’s religions, lawyers, doctors, environmentalists, labour leaders, women, human rights activists, parliamentarians and others.    While governments bear the primary responsibility for peace, he also underscored the key role that business can play in an address to the Global Compact Network.    A company’s investment and employment decisions, its relations with communities, and its actions on the environment and security “can create or exacerbate the tensions that fuel conflict… or they can help a country remain at peace,” he emphasized.    Eliminating all nuclear weapons, the Secretary-General said, can only be achieved through political will and the continued efforts of citizens around the world telling their governments “no more.” He emphasized that these weapons must be outlawed.    “There must be no place in our world for such indiscriminate weapons. “The only way to ensure that such weapons will never again be used is to eliminate them all,” he said. Visit the related web page
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