2009

Report of North and South Asia Joint Regional Conference of IPPNW – 22-23 August 2009 at Hiroshima

The first ever joint South and North Asia regional conference of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) called upon the nuclear weapons states to immediately take effective measures to abolish nuclear weapons. The conference was held at Hiroshima on 22nd and 23rd August 2009. A 17 member delegation of Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) participated in this conference. The delegation was led by Dr.L.S.Chawla President IDPD & Vice President IPPNW South Asia. Doctors and medical students from J & K, Punjab, Manipur, Delhi, Tripura and Tamilnadu represented IDPD delegation. Prominent among those who attended the conference are from Punjab Dr.Livtar Singh Chawla- Vice President IPPNW and President IDPD, Dr.Arun Mitra General Secretary IDPD, Dr.N.S.Bawa-Vice President, Dr.Santokh Singh- Member central council and Ms.Rachana Bawa (Medical Student), from J&K Dr S S Soodan-Vice President IDPD and Dr Bhavneet Kaur and Mr. Arashdeep Singh-Medical student, from Delhi Dr Manjit Sachdeva, from Tripura Dr Yudhisthir Dass, from Manipur Mr Arohan Sapkota, from Tamil Nadu Dr G R Ravindranath. The conference was held on the theme “We CAN abolish nuclear weapons. Now is the opportunity!”. The conference was inaugurated by Dr. Shizuteru Usui, President of JPPNW, Vice President of IPPNW, President of Hiroshima Prefectural Medical Association. He along with Dr.L.S.Chawla laid wreath at the memorial for the victims of atomic bombing. It requested the international commission on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament to include specific proposals for time frame and concrete measures for the ultimate nuclear abolition. They welcomed the Africa as a nuclear weapon free zone and wished such zones in rest of the world. The conference made an appeal to the United States of America and Russia to take lead so that the world can be made free of nuclear weapons by the year 2020. During the conference there was a “South and North Asia Regional General Meeting” in which Dr.L.S.Chawla was the main speaker and the session was moderated by Dr.Arun Mitra. In another South Asian Session: “Peace and Security in South Asia Vis-a-Vis Rest of the World”, Dr.Arun Mitra was the main speaker. Various speakers in this session stressed on the need for more and more people to people exchange programmes as a part of the confidence building measures between the nations. Dr.Santokh Singh informed about high level of uranium in the state of Punjab probably as a result of Afghanistan war. Dr.G.R.Ravindranath stressed on the need for effective measures by the Sri Lankan government to assimilate the Tamils in the national main stream.

The conference was attended by 240 delegates from Japan, China, Mongolia, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. A message was received from the affiliate of North Korea. An exhibition on the effects of war and violence was put up by Dr.N.S.Bawa. A separate students’ session was held in which Indian students gave their presentation. The Japanese media gave lot of space to the event and was highly appreciative of the Indian doctors for their work. The conference was attended by 240 delegates from Japan, China, Mongolia, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. A message was received from the affiliate of North Korea. An exhibition on the effects of war and violence was put up by Dr.N.S.Bawa. A separate students’ session was held in which Indian students gave their presentation. The Japanese media gave lot of space to the event and was highly appreciative of the Indian doctors for their work. The South Asian doctors held separate meeting and planned to hold South Asian regional meeting of the IPPNW at Dhaka in February 2011.

Highlights of the conference include:

1. Visit to Radiation Effects Research Foundation was concurrently arranged from 8:30 am - 9:30 am :

About 20 overseas participants visited Radiation Effects Research Foundation and was given a study tour by Drs Okubo and Neriishi. A DVD is to be presented to the visitors who would like to have one.

After the RERF study tour, a tour of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum was arranged guided by peace volunteers, and then, a floral tribute took place at the memorial monument. Two wreaths, representing the North Asia region and the South Asia region each, were placed.

2. Opening session: Dr Shizuteru Usui, IPPNW Vice President, JPPNW President, President of Hiroshima Prefectural Medical Association (HPMA) gave a welcome address. Following his address, messages from various people were read with each person’s photo shown on the screen, such as, Dr Karasawa ,President of JMA, Mayor Akiba, Mr Kono, Former Speaker of Lower House, Dr Taipale, IPPNW Co-President, Mr Loretz, IPPNW Program Director.

In the end of the opening session, Kanemori, a high school boy in Hiroshima, appealed to the audience the campaign called “No Nuke Network of Junior and High School Students” . The aim of the campaign is to fold more paper cranes than existing nuclear weapons, and visit President Obama bringing those paper cranes to ask him to visit Hiroshima. Kanemori asked the conference participants to help fold paper cranes and for some donation to visit the USA.

Hiroshima Peace Media Center gave generous coverage about the conference. Please visit the following website. http://www.hiroshimapeacemedia.jp/mediacenter/article.php?story=2009082411002798_en

Presentations by the experts Hiromichi Umebayashi, special adviser to Peace Depot, an NPO located in the city of Yokohama, near Tokyo, delivered the keynote address in which he proposed concluding a Nuclear Weapons Convention and expanding nuclear-weapon-free zones as approaches toward abolishing nuclear weapons.

At the symposium, with a panel of five experts on nuclear issues, Tatsujiro Suzuki, visiting professor at the University of Tokyo, outlined an idea for the multilateral management of nuclear fuel, which could prevent nuclear proliferation.

Jargalsaikhany Enkhsaikhan, the Mongolian ambassador to Austria, stressed the significance of the no-first-use declaration involving nuclear arms and said, “I call on nations which stand under a nuclear umbrella, including Japan, to act to change the thinking of countries holding nuclear weapons.”

Motofumi Asai, president of the Hiroshima Peace Institute of Hiroshima City University, pointed out the role of civil society and said, “It is our urgent task to generate enough energy to bring U.S. President Barack Obama to the side of eliminating these weapons.”

The 7th IPPNW North and South Asia Joint Regional Conference: Hiroshima Declaration

August 22-23, 2009

U.S. President Barack Obama stated in Prague this April that “the United States would take concrete steps towards a world without nuclear weapons.” Since then, global attention and hopes have been enhanced for the abolition of nuclear weapons. At this very opportune point in time, IPPNW has held the IPPNW North and South Asia Joint Regional Conference here in Hiroshima―the city devastated 64 years ago by an atomic bomb for the first time in the history of the world―and has reconfirmed the belief that the abolition of nuclear weapons is absolutely necessary to protecting the human health and global environment.

In order to realize a world without nuclear weapons, a comprehensive legal framework based on a viable verification system in the form of a “Nuclear Weapons Convention” is needed. We strongly support international treaties concerning nuclear disarmament: above all, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT), and other bilateral or multilateral nuclear weapon reduction treaties. We consider these treaties necessary for materializing a “world without nuclear weapons,” as well as for controlling nuclear weapons possessed by the nuclear weapon states pending the abolition thereof. We in IPPNW have been calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons through dialogues with decision makers, as well as in collaboration with other like-minded NGOs. We strongly support the “Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol” proposed by the Mayors for Peace. We also request the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) to include specific proposals for time-frame and concrete measures for the ultimate nuclear abolition in its recommendation to be submitted by the end of this year.

Pending the realization of a world without nuclear weapons, nuclear weapon-free zone treaties are useful for paving the way to peaceful coexistence through dialogue. With regard to Northeast Asia, a realistic concept has already been proposed for the regional treaty establishing such zone. Recent DPRK’s nuclear tests have dampened the regional atmosphere, but hopefully the framework of six-party talks still remains. We strongly urge regional governments to take positive steps for an early realization of a Northeast Asia nuclear weapon-free zone. We would welcome similar steps to be taken by regional governments in South Asia.

In light of the increasing number of nuclear power plants and facilities across the world aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emission, we demand the safety of human health and the protection of environment, the prevention of the spread of nuclear fissile materials and sensitive technology, and the application of safeguards to avoid military diversion. Above all, adequate framework and technology need to be developed to stop the production of weapons-grade fissile material by way of enrichment and reprocessing of nuclear fuels.

The way to the abolition of nuclear weapons will not be just given, but we have to make efforts and grab it. President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima is the new first step to the abolition of nuclear weapons.

We are standing at a crossroad―a path toward either the abolition of nuclear weapons or otherwise the infinite proliferation of nuclear weapons. We call on all people and governments in the world to join forces for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Student session report

The 7th IPPNW North and South Asia joint regional conference whichheld at Hiroshima, Japan on 22-23 August 2009 started with a studentmeeting. There was participation of students from Japan(host), India,Pakistan, China, Nepal, Indonesia, Mongolia, Brazil, Portugal, Turkey,Netherlands and Germany. The Indian Students delegates were Arashdeep Singh, Rachana Bawa andArohan Sapkota. The meeting was chaired by Seiko Sugawara, a medical student fromHiroshima University. The meeting started with a welcome address from Ryoma Kayano, medicalstudent from Nagasaki University. The Hiroshima Summer School started with the presentations. It is project in which medical students from all over the world gather atHiroshima and learn the damage caused by atomic bomb from medical viewpoint. It is a official project of International Federation of MedicalStudents Association (IFMSA), Japan.It is followed by presentations from Japan , China, India, Pakistan,Nepal and Mongolia. All Presentations were focussed on the nuclearweapons and their effects and the country's viewpoint about theseweapons. The presentations were followed by a lively discussion in which thestudents were divided into small group of 6-7 students each withstudents from different countries. Group discussion concluded that: We, medical students have to play the bigger role in the peace makingprocess. we have to reach to the common mass and make them aware ofthe ill effects of nuclear weapons. We have to put efforts to reach our policy makers and make them awareof our fears about nuclear weapons. At last Hanae Nagata, Student representative from Japan concluded themeeting with a pledge to continue our efforts toward the prevention ofnuclear war and disarmament of the nations possessing these weapons. the report was presented on 23rd august in the main conference byhanae nagata and represntstives from other regions which includedArohan from india ,where each representative which consisted Arohan,from India, Murtuza khan Afridi From Pakistan, Rocky from China,Biswas Airyal from Nepal and Jose Junior from brazil. where eachspeakers were to speak on how they felt regarding the studentsmeeting. where everyone collectively emphacised on Cultural Differenceand mutual respect, Followed by which Hanae Nagata from Japan endedthe students presentation with showing the activities done by thestudents during the meeting.