Japan A-bomb victims ask UN to implement nuke treaty

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA - Survivors of the atom bomb attacks against Japan in 1945 petitioned the UN to implement the 2017 nuclear weapons ban treaty.

A group of Nagasaki and Hiroshima victims gathered an international petition with more than 9 million signatures that demands early enforcement of treaty of the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), according to Tokyo-based The Mainichi newspaper.

The petition was given May 1 to the Preparatory Committee of the 2020 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of (NPT) in New York.

The head of the Japan Confederation of A-and H-bomb Sufferers, Sueichi Kido, a survivor of the bombing in Nagasaki, led the delegation which met NPT chair, Syed Mohamad Hasrin Aidid, and UN disarmament head, Izumi Nakamitsu.

“Nuclear disarmament is an irreversible international trend. The rise in global conflict and tension is not a justification to oppose abolition; it is a reason to support it,” Kido told Aidid.

The newspaper said the online petition amassed more than 1 million signatures since its last submission to the U.N. last fall.

It added that review conferences for the NPT are held every five years to examine the treaty's status and this year the preparatory committee session will continue to May 10.

“The 2015 conference ended without resolving disagreements between nuclear and non-nuclear states. The current session aims to prepare for next year's negotiations, but with issues including the United States' intention to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), the nuclear abolition movement is facing an uphill battle,” the newspaper said.

The atomic bombs affected hundreds of thousands of people in and out of Japan when U.S. forces detonated them in Nagasaki and Hiroshima to end World War II.