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Protest letter against the UK subcritical nuclear test (February 15, 2002)

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February 15, 2002

The Right Honourable Anthony Charles Lynton Blair
Prime Minister
The United Kingdom

Letter of Protest

On February 14, the United Kingdom collaborated with the United States to carry out a subcritical nuclear test at the American underground test site in Nevada.

I am extremely disappointed to learn that the UK participated in this nuclear test, disregarding efforts by the rest of the world to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and abolish all such weapons as soon as possible, and despite my official visit to the UK last fall during which I requested directly, on behalf of the people of Hiroshima, that you work toward nuclear abolition. Your subcritical nuclear testing and your apparent determination to continue possessing nuclear weapons on into the 21st century amount to a betrayal of the atomic bomb survivors and people around the world who want nothing more than the elimination of such weapons.

I had hoped that the cruel tragedies wrought by the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had taught the human race a valuable lesson. However, confronted by the fact that the United States and the United Kingdom have chosen at this delicate time to conduct a joint subcritical nuclear test, I cannot escape the feeling that we are doomed to repeat the horrors of the nuclear explosions that took place nearly 60 years ago. Your actions are profoundly harmful to the worldwide system for controlling nuclear weapons and to the process of nuclear disarmament. I am gravely concerned that you are provoking nuclear proliferation and, on behalf of the people of Hiroshima, I vehemently protest.

We have reason to believe that the subcritical tests are linked to the development of new nuclear weapons, and they certainly violate the spirit of the CTBT. The United Kingdom must begin listening conscientiously to the international community calling desperately for the abolition of nuclear weapons. You are obligated to work in good faith to implement your promise of an "unequivocal undertaking by the nuclear weapon states to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals", adopted at the NPT Review Conference. On these grounds, we demand that you immediately halt all nuclear testing, including subcritical testing, and begin working sincerely to build a new world order free from nuclear weapons.

Tadatoshi Akiba
Mayor
The City of Hiroshima


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