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Mayor of Hiroshima visits Brussels to call for nuclear disarmament
PRESS CONFERENCE Tuesday January 18th - 1:30 pm Brussels City Hall, Salle Maximilien
with Mr. Akiba Tadatoshi, Mayor Hiroshima and President of World Conference of Mayors for Peace; Freddy Thielemans, Mayor of Brussels; Senator Patrik Vankrunkelsven, Co-chair Parliamentary Working group on Non-Proliferation; Luc Dehaene, Mayor Ypres; Pol D'Huyvetter, tour coordinator - Abolition 2000, global network to eliminate nuclear weapons.
More information on Brussels programme (including venues and time) www.abolition2000europe.org/m4pBrussels.php
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mayor of Hiroshima circles Globe to gain support for complete Nuclear Disarmament by 2020
Brussels, January 14th 2005 - In his capacity as the President of Mayors for Peace, a network of 650 cities in 110 countries, Mr. Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor of Hiroshima, will visit the capitals of the United States, Belgium, and Germany during the week of 16th-22nd January. In each city he will meet with large groups of mayors and Members of Parliament to discuss the total elimination of nuclear weapons by 2020. In Brussels, “the capital of Europe”, he will also address the European and Belgian Parliament.
Mayor Akiba visits Brussels on the invitation of Abolition 2000 Europe, from Tuesday 18th to Thursday 20th January.
On Wednesday 19th January, at 9 am Mr. Akiba Tadatoshi will address the European Parliament to gain support for his “2020 vision”, his aim of a nuclear-free world by the year 2020. At the invitation of Mr. Elmar Brok, Chairman of the EP Foreign Affairs Committee, Mayor Akiba will explain the need to turn the world away from the nuclear threat. In February 2004, the European Parliament endorsed the Mayors Campaign in a resolution on nuclear non-proliferation.
With a view to the upcoming NPT Review Conference next May at the United Nations in New York, the European Parliament will be considering another resolution in the coming months.
Abolition 2000 Belgium cooperated with the Belgian Parliamentary Working Group on Non-Proliferation to organise a hearing with Mr. Akiba in the Belgian Parliamentary Committees of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Brussels Mayor Freddy Thielemans will host a meeting of Belgian Mayors at Brussels City Hall. Mayor Akiba will also be hosted by the Mayors of Antwerp, Ghent and Ypres. Ypres, like Hiroshima, is the first site of the use of a weapon of mass destruction- poison gas in the First World War.
The goal is to attract 1000 mayors to the Mayors for Peace network by May 2005. With this initiative Mr Akiba hopes to put nuclear disarmament high on the international political agenda.
For more details contact Pol D’Huyvetter,
Abolition 2000 Europe Mobile: +32-495-28 02 59
E-mail: pol@motherearth.org
More information for Brussels on www.abolition2000europe.org/m4pBrussels.php
Please visit the 2020 Vision Campaign website for background information:
www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/mayors/english/campaign/2020vision.html
Abolition 2000 Europe - part of the global network for the elimination of nuclear weapons
c/o Secretariat
For Mother Earth - Member of Friends of the Earth International
K. Maria Hendrikaplein 5
9000 Gent - Belgium
Phone +32-9-242 87 52 or 04
Fax +32-9-242 87 51
pol@motherearth.org
www.abolition2000.org