Global Citizens' Assembly held in Nagasaki to eliminate nuclear arms

"The 2nd Nagasaki Global Citizens' Assembly for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons" was held from November 22 to 24 with some 2,500 people, including NGO representatives from 11 countries, in attendance, to discuss how to realize a peaceful, nuclear-free world in the 21st century.

At its first day of meetings, Tsuchiyama Hideo, head of the organizing committee, stated, "Nuclear weapons created by humans' hands can be abolished with humans'--- citizens' hands." He also quoted from a note written by Watanabe Chieko, a late atomic bomb victim who suffered the A-bombing at the age of 16 and devoted the rest of her life to the movement of Hibakushas.

The foreign NGO representatives included Rebecca Johnson, executive director of the Acronym Institute, and Lee Samsung, a professor at Hallym University in South Korea. (end)