United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday urged world leaders to demonstrate “farsightedness” and “eliminate” the “death machines” that are nuclear weapons, after awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to a anti-atomic weapons group.
• Also read: The Nobel Peace Prize goes to the Japanese group Nihon Hidankyo, survivors of Hiroshima opposed to nuclear weapons
On Friday, the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, which brings together survivors of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, was honored by the Nobel committee “for its efforts in favor of a world without nuclear weapons and for having demonstrated, through testimonies, that nuclear weapons must never be used again.
A recognition welcomed by Antonio Guterres. “The survivors of the atomic bomb of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known ashibakushaare altruistic witnesses and guarantors of the memory of the horrible human cost of nuclear weapons,” he reacted in a press release.
“I will never forget the many meetings I had with them over the years. Their striking testimonies remind the world that the nuclear threat is not confined to the history books,” he continues, noting that “nuclear weapons remain a clear and present danger to humanity, (a danger) which appears new in the daily rhetoric of international relations.
“It is time for world leaders to be as far-sighted as hibakusha and consider nuclear weapons for what they are: devices of death that offer neither safety, nor protection, nor security,” he urged. “The only way to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons is to eliminate them completely.”
