Global Experts Seek Urgent Action to Prevent Nuclear War

Tokyo, March 31 (Jiji Press)--Experts from Japan and overseas Monday released a proposal for urgent action to prevent nuclear war, ahead of next year's review conference for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The International Group of Eminent Persons for a World without Nuclear Weapons (IGEP), which discussed ways to realize a world free of nuclear weapons at its latest two-day meeting in Tokyo from Sunday, said that the world has a responsibility to make the southwestern city of Nagasaki the last place to suffer nuclear bombing.

"The use of nuclear weapons could have destructive consequences," group chair Takashi Shiraishi, honorable emeritus professor at Prefectural University of Kumamoto, told a press conference after the meeting.

The proposal warned that dangers linked to nuclear weapons are at their highest in several decades and that the risk of conventional warfare leading to the use of nuclear weapons is becoming serious.

It clearly set out five principles for avoiding nuclear war--not making changes to the status quo of countries' territories, always abiding by international law, recognizing the special responsibly held by nuclear powers, supporting multilateralism and reducing nuclear dependence.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]