Protest letter against the Russia subcritical nuclear test (November 3, 2000)

September 5, 2000

The Honorable Vladimir V. Putin
President
Russian Federation

Letter of Protest

It was announced on September 4th that the Russian Federation has conducted three subcritical nuclear tests between August 28 and September 3rd. At the NPT Review Conference held in April and May this year, you and the other nuclear-weapon states committed yourselves to "an unequivocal undertaking" to eliminate your nuclear arsenals. At this point, you and the United States should be playing central roles in that effort, yet you repeatedly carry out subcritical nuclear tests, making it plain that you intend to maintain your nuclear weapons. Your actions trample on the hopes of the majority of the world's population, which favors the abolition of nuclear weapons, and on behalf of the citizens of Hiroshima, I vehemently protest.

In considering why your tests were publicly announced even as you visit our nation, the world's only A-bombed nation, I can only conclude that you are defiantly expressing your intention to maintain nuclear weapons indefinitely. I am appalled and outraged by this attitude.

At this very moment, in the city of Hannover, an Executive Conference of the World Conference of Mayors for Peace through Inter-city Solidarity has just adopted a resolution calling on the nuclear-weapon states to commit themselves to a specific timetable for fulfilling your promise to abolish nuclear weapons. Again, the timing is worse than regrettable.

The Russian Federation and the United States should sincerely accept the desire of the rest of the world for nuclear abolition. You should immediately halt all subcritical nuclear testing and take the lead in working for nuclear abolition and to make the 21st a century of peace free from nuclear weapons.

Tadatoshi Akiba
Mayor
The City of Hiroshima