Thousands march for nuke-free world

Thousands of demonstrators from around the globe have joined together near the UN headquarters in New York, demanding a world free of nuclear weapons.

The protesters from the US, Japan, Europe and other countries, urged world leaders to start talks to eliminate the world’s nuclear arsenals.

Among the rally speakers were mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Kimura Hisako, a survivor of the US atomic attack against Japan in 1945.

“Besides the more than ten thousand people in the streets, we have over seven million petition signatures from around the world calling for a world free of nuclear weapons in our lifetime,” said Judith Le Blanc, Field Organizer for Peace Action.

The peace festival, organized by the 2010 NPT organizing committee, took place on the eve of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference at New York.

Since the NPT entered into force in the 1970, some 189 states have joined the treaty, making it the most widely recognized nuclear disarmament agreement.

The US, Russia, Britain, France and China which are internationally recognized as nuclear weapon states, are signatories to the treaty.

However, India, Pakistan and North Korea who have successfully conducted atomic tests have refused to sign the agreement.

Israel which is widely believed to be the sole owner of nuclear warheads in the Middle East is also not a signatory to the NPT.