Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-08-05
CONTENTS
[01] European Left parties submit anti-nuclear appeal to Greek
Parliament
[01] European Left parties submit anti-nuclear appeal to Greek
Parliament
An appeal against nuclear weapons by Europe's left-wing parties and a
declaration by mayors and MPs, issued on the 60th anniversary of the
atomic bomb explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, will be submitted to
Greek Parliament president Anna Psarouda-Benaki on Friday.The
anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima is on Saturday.
The appeal was originally proposed by Greece's Coalition of the Left,
Movements and Ecology (Synaspismos) party at the Forum of the European
New Left.
It makes a series of demands - such as adherence to the treaty for
non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, an end to 'preemptive wars',
removal of some 480 U.S. nuclear weapons that are still in Europe and
the signature of a full nuclear test ban treaty by the U.S. - which aim
to make the world free of nuclear weapons by 2020.
Synaspismos spokesman Panos Trigazis stressed that the Belgian
Parliament and Senate had been the first in an EU member-state to adopt
a demand for the withdrawal of U.S. nukes from Europe, asking the Greek
government to explain why it had fully aligned itself with a position
that they should stay during a NATO nuclear planning meeting on June
9.
Trigazis also pointed out that demands for Iran to give up its nuclear
programme should be accompanied by initiatives to make the entire
Middle East a nuclear-free zone, starting with Israel's nuclear
arsenal.
In Hiroshima, Greenpeace staged a protest in front of the Hiroshima
Dome, holding dove-shaped balloons that carried messages of peace sent
from people all over the world. Greenpeace called on the Japanese
government to abort plans to open the Rokkasho Mura nuclear processing
plant in Aomori province, which is scheduled to start producting
plutonium next year.
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