By IRNA,
Tehran : Senior United Nations official appealed Monday for an end to the use of nuclear weapons, which he said remained as an “apocalyptic” threat.
Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Kiyotaka Aka saka made the remarks remembering the terrible toll of the nuclear attacks during World War II on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, said a press release issued by the UN Information Center (UNIC) in Tehran.
The two cities were destroyed in August 1945, and more than 200,000 people died of nuclear radiation, shock waves from the blasts and thermal radiation. More than 400,000 more people have died – and are continuing to die – since the end of World War II from the impacts of the bombs.
Thousands of nuclear tests have been carried out in the decades since the war and there are more than 20,000 nuclear weapons in arsenals around the
world, the official said at the launch of a multimedia exhibit at UN Headquarters focusing on hibakusha, survivors of the Japanese attacks.
“This is why the international community’s commitment to non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament is so critical,” he added.
The exhibit would feature photographs which capture how survivors have lived their lives in the wake of the attacks, as well as artifacts recovered from blast areas and a 30-minute video entitled Hiroshima: A Mother’s Prayer.
The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Tadatoshi Akiba and Tomihisa Taue, also spoke at the launch.
The exhibit’s opening coincided with the start of the five-yearly review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which got under way Monday in New York.
Representatives of more than 100 nations are gathering at the UN Headquarters to discuss how to further full implementation and enhance the universality of the pact, which forms the foundation of the world’s non-proliferation regime.
At the start of the nearly month-long event Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon exhorted countries to take decision action to build a safer world.
“We have a choice: to leave a legacy of fear and inaction… or to act with vision, courage and leadership,” he told the conference.
“We all know it is possible,” the Secretary-General said of disarmament and non-proliferation, which have been among his top priorities since taking office in 2007.