“The
threat is real. We have avoided nuclear war not through prudent
leadership but good fortune. Sooner or later, if we fail to act, our
luck will run out,” Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), said during a ceremony in Oslo on Sunday.
“The
risk for nuclear weapons use is even greater today than at the end of
the Cold War. But unlike the Cold War, today we face many more
nuclear-armed states, terrorists and cyber warfare,” she said. “A moment
of panic or carelessness, a misconstrued comment or bruised ego, could
easily lead us unavoidably to the destruction of entire cities.”
ICAN has since its 2007 establishment
worked to draw attention to the catastrophic consequences of nuclear
weapons and promote a treaty-based prohibition of them, according to
the Nobel Prize’s website.
Beatrice
Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish
Nuclear Weapons, embraces Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Thurlow
(center) during the Nobel Peace Prize's award ceremony on Sunday. Berit
Reiss-Andersen, leader of the Nobel Committee, stands to the left.
(Norsk Telegrambyra AS / Reuters)
During a news conference on Saturday about ICAN’s work, Fihn included mention of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump, who in recent months have engaged in mutual verbal threats and name calling over Pyonyang’s nuclear weapons program.
“These
weapons do not make us safe, they are not a deterrent, they only spur
other states to pursue their own nuclear weapons,” Fihn said, according to The Associated Press.
“If you are not comfortable with Kim Jong-un having nuclear weapons,
then you are not comfortable with nuclear weapons. If you’re not
comfortable with Donald Trump having nuclear weapons, then you are not
comfortable with nuclear weapons.”
On
Sunday, Fihn accepted the prestigious award alongside atomic bomb
survivor Setsuko Thurlow, who recalled climbing out of rubble toward the
light after the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on her city of Hiroshima,
Japan, in 1945.
Thurlow,
while recalling that life or death moment at the age of 13, urged
countries to sign the international Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear
Weapons.
“Our light now is the ban treaty,” Thurlow said, according to the AP. “I
repeat those words that I heard called to me in the ruins of Hiroshima:
‘Don’t give up. Keep pushing. See the light? Crawl toward it.’”
(Norsk Telegrambyra AS / Reuters)
In a speech on Sunday,
Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, stressed
that the nuclear weapons that instantly killed at least 140,000 people
in Hiroshima and Nagasaki ― and later many more by radiation ― are not
as destructive as the ones we have today.
“A
nuclear war could kill millions of people, dramatically alter the
climate and the environment for much of the planet, and destabilize
societies in a way never before seen by humanity. The notion of a
limited nuclear war is an illusion,” she said.
The
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has been signed by 56
countries, none of which have nuclear weapons. It has been ratified by
just three. In order for it to become a binding agreement, it needs
ratification by 50 countries, Reiss-Andersen said.
No comments:
Post a Comment