KAZAKHSTAN & JAPAN: ‘AGAINST NUCLEAR ARMS’ AT UN HQ
Astana, August 12: A major exhibition entitled ‘Against Nuclear Arms’ opened Monday, August 10th at the United Nations HQ in New York as a testament to the victims of nuclear testing in Kazakhstan and the atomic bombings in Japan during World War II.
The devastation caused by the dropping of bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is well-known, but the world is less aware of what transpired in the steppes of Kazakhstan during the Soviet era.
Nearly 500 nuclear and thermonuclear tests were carried out in Semipalatinsk from 1949 to 1989, bringing grave impact on the health of 1,5 million people. A large part of ‘Against Nuclear Arms’ tells of the medical, social and environmental consequences of these experiments on the population, flora and fauna of the region.
"This exhibition shows the true dangers posed by weapons of mass destruction, and presents undisputable evidence of the horrors and consequences of nuclear devastation" said Kazakhstan's Ambassador to the UN, Byrganym Aitimova, at the show’s opening. "I would like to encourage you to look closely at the pictures… [to look] into the eyes of the victims and hear the outcry of our people scarred with years of suffering" continued Ms Aitimova.
The exhibition also presents the peaceful policy of Kazakhstan and Japan, as well as the countries’ contribution to the processes of disarmament and non-proliferation.
A Message of the Secretary of State of Kazakhstan H.E. Mr. Kanat Saudabayev, sent especially on the occasion of the Exhibition, was announced at the Opening ceremony:
“On August 29, 1991, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev took a wise and courageous decision to shut down the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site permanently. A year and a half later an independent Kazakhstan renounced the world’s fourth largest nuclear and missile arsenal. By these steps Kazakhstan has charted a way towards a nuclear weapon-free world. Today, against the backdrop of new unprecedented global security challenges, Kazakhstan’s example is especially relevant.”
“We hope” said Ambassador Aitimova, “that with the momentum harnessed for the upcoming UN Disarmament Week, the Secretary-General’s ‘WMD - We Must Disarm’ campaign leading to this year’s International Day of Peace on 21 September, and the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, a proposal made [by President Nazarbayev] to mark a day in the calendar as the International Day for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons will be supported by the UN Member States during the 64th General Assembly Session.”
‘AGAINST NUCLEAR ARMS’ is presented by the permanent missions of Kazakhstan and Japan and will be on display at the UN building until September 30th. Organized into three sections -- ‘The Untold Story of Semipalatinsk Polygon’, ‘Hope of Hiroshima and Nagasaki’ and a collaboration between artists Masaru Tanaka and Betsie Miller-Kusz) -- the exhibition includes a presentation of the work of HICARE, the Hiroshima International Council for Health Care of the Radiation-Exposed, founded after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Astana, August 12: A major exhibition entitled ‘Against Nuclear Arms’ opened Monday, August 10th at the United Nations HQ in New York as a testament to the victims of nuclear testing in Kazakhstan and the atomic bombings in Japan during World War II.
The devastation caused by the dropping of bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is well-known, but the world is less aware of what transpired in the steppes of Kazakhstan during the Soviet era.
Nearly 500 nuclear and thermonuclear tests were carried out in Semipalatinsk from 1949 to 1989, bringing grave impact on the health of 1,5 million people. A large part of ‘Against Nuclear Arms’ tells of the medical, social and environmental consequences of these experiments on the population, flora and fauna of the region.
"This exhibition shows the true dangers posed by weapons of mass destruction, and presents undisputable evidence of the horrors and consequences of nuclear devastation" said Kazakhstan's Ambassador to the UN, Byrganym Aitimova, at the show’s opening. "I would like to encourage you to look closely at the pictures… [to look] into the eyes of the victims and hear the outcry of our people scarred with years of suffering" continued Ms Aitimova.
The exhibition also presents the peaceful policy of Kazakhstan and Japan, as well as the countries’ contribution to the processes of disarmament and non-proliferation.
A Message of the Secretary of State of Kazakhstan H.E. Mr. Kanat Saudabayev, sent especially on the occasion of the Exhibition, was announced at the Opening ceremony:
“On August 29, 1991, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev took a wise and courageous decision to shut down the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site permanently. A year and a half later an independent Kazakhstan renounced the world’s fourth largest nuclear and missile arsenal. By these steps Kazakhstan has charted a way towards a nuclear weapon-free world. Today, against the backdrop of new unprecedented global security challenges, Kazakhstan’s example is especially relevant.”
“We hope” said Ambassador Aitimova, “that with the momentum harnessed for the upcoming UN Disarmament Week, the Secretary-General’s ‘WMD - We Must Disarm’ campaign leading to this year’s International Day of Peace on 21 September, and the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, a proposal made [by President Nazarbayev] to mark a day in the calendar as the International Day for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons will be supported by the UN Member States during the 64th General Assembly Session.”
‘AGAINST NUCLEAR ARMS’ is presented by the permanent missions of Kazakhstan and Japan and will be on display at the UN building until September 30th. Organized into three sections -- ‘The Untold Story of Semipalatinsk Polygon’, ‘Hope of Hiroshima and Nagasaki’ and a collaboration between artists Masaru Tanaka and Betsie Miller-Kusz) -- the exhibition includes a presentation of the work of HICARE, the Hiroshima International Council for Health Care of the Radiation-Exposed, founded after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.