International Meeting held

The International Meeting of the 2001 World Conference against A & H
Bombs was held from August 3 to 5 in Hiroshima City with 220 people,
including 54 overseas representatives from 20 countries, and seven
international and regional organizations, attending.

This year's meeting carries the banner "Nuclear Weapons States Must Make
Good on Their Promise to Abolish Nuclear Weapons: International Cooperation
and Solidarity Will Ensure the Future of the World."

Ogata Yasuo, Japanese Communist Party House of Councilors member, made a
speech. (For the full text of the speech see page **)

The discussion of the "Implementation of Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
without Delay" was focused on the danger of recent U.S. policy pursuing
missile defense, space militarization, and smaller nukes, thus accelerating
the nuclear arms race.

"It is high time to enact an international treaty to abolish nuclear
weapons," said Alyn Ware, who represented the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear
Policy. He took part in the New Zealand government's delegation to the 2000
NPT Review Conference.

In the discussion of the "Prevention of Bringing-in of Nuclear Weapons in
foreign territories; Expansion of Nuclear Weapons-free Zones globally,"
representatives from South Korea and Okinawa in Japan reported their
anti-U.S. base struggles, and those from Britain and Japan introduced their
activities for increasing non-nuclear local governments.

The meeting received messages from the prime ministers of Sweden and New
Zealand which were read aloud in the meeting hall.

On August 4, World Conference delegates attended workshops.

In Workshop 1 on "Implementation of abolition of nuclear weapons without
delay," Jean Lambert, Green Party member of the European Parliament,
representing the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament of the UK, said that many
nations are criticizing the U.S. Bush Administration for trying to impose
the missile defense systems and are worried about cost of the U.S. refusing
to fight against climate change.

Romesh Chandra, World Peace Council president of honor, stressed the need
of cooperation between the governments of U.S. allies and others which do
not fully support the U.S. policy, along with NGOs.

In Workshop 2 under the theme of "prevention of bringing-in of nuclear
weapons in foreign territories - expansion of nuclear weapon-free zones," a
Japanese participant from Fukagawa City, Hokkaido reported that after
collecting signatures in support of the "Hiroshima and Nagasaki Appeal" from
more than 58% of the city population they successfully convinced on the City
Assembly to adopt a statement which called on the central government to
legislate the Three Non-Nuclear Principles.

In reply to a proposal of a participant from Osaka Prefecture for
strengthening solidarity between Japanese and Korean peoples, Lee Yujin from
the Green Korea United of the Republic of Korea said that the two peoples
can develop joint struggles against the U.S. missile defense policy and U.S.
bases.

In Workshop 3, participants discussed the importance of solidarity among
nuclear victims in the world. They agreed to talk about their ill effects
from atomic bombings and nuclear tests to the next generations and further
exchange information.

On August 5, the international meeting adopted a unanimous resolution
which urges nuclear weapons states to make good on their promise to abolish
nuclear weapons. (For the full text of the dopcument see page *)

In his guest speech, Peter Weiss, International Association of Lawyers
Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) chair, said that international negotiations
must be started to abolish nuclear weapons in accordance with the
International Court of Justice recommendation to this end. (end)