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Int'l day against nuclear test to be observed on Friday
Lovers of world peace will commemorate the International Day against Nuclear Tests on Friday by observing a minute of silence in memory of all victims of nuclear weapons testing
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overs of world peace will commemorate the International Day against Nuclear Tests on Friday by observing a minute of silence in memory of all victims of nuclear weapons testing.
'Two years ago, as part of the commemoration of the International Day against Nuclear Tests, the parliamentary assembly of Kazakhstan launched the ATOM project to garner global support for a comprehensive ban of nuclear weapons and their total destruction,' Kazakhstan Ambassador to Indonesia Askhat T. Orazbay told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
The ATOM project, Orazbay said, called on all people of the world ' including Indonesians ' to observe a minute's silence every Aug. 29 at 11:05 a.m. (local time) to protest against the testing of deadly nuclear arsenals.
'The United Nations general assembly set Aug. 29 as the International Day against Nuclear Tests through Resolution No. 64/35 on Dec. 2, 2009. The resolution was initiated by Kazakhstan,' Orazbay said.
Why Aug. 29?
On Aug. 29, 1991, Kazakhstan officially closed its biggest nuclear test site in Semipalatinsk, where more than 455 nuclear tests had been conducted between 1949 and 1989.
Since the first nuclear test on July 16, 1945, at the Trinity site in the US, more than 2,000 tests have been conducted so far by many countries. The US dropped the first nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. More than 200,000 people were killed in those nuclear attacks.
In his message to mark this year's International Day against Nuclear Tests, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a complete ban on all types of nuclear weapons.
"Together, let us demand an end to all nuclear testing and get on with the unfinished business of achieving a world free of nuclear weapons," Ban said.
Many countries in the world have realized the danger of nuclear testing and have initiated the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The UN adopted the CTBT on Sept. 10, 1996, but it has not been enacted because the US, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Iran and Israel have not yet ratified it.
Like Kazakhstan, Indonesia has been in the frontline to campaign for a global ban on nuclear weapons for many years. It became the 157th country to adopt the CTBT in 2012.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said a trust deficit over the intentions of major nuclear powers often held back countries from ratifying the CTBT.
'These countries must have the courage to step out of their comfort zone and to take some kind of a calculated risk that their positive move will be reciprocated,' Natalegawa said in 2012 when depositing Indonesia's ratification documents with Ban.
