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Meeting in the Oval Office between President Nixon and President Mobutu of Zaire, known as Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since 1997. The uranium used in making the bomb and subsequent atomic weapons were sourced from the DRC. Credit: Jack Kightlinger | Wikimedia Commons. - Photo: 2023

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK. 24 August 2023 (IDN) — This month marks the anniversary of the first use of an atomic bomb, developed in the U.S. and dropped on a Japanese city to deadly effect.

Little is known, however, of the African connection to this deadly weapon—namely the use of uranium in making the bomb and subsequent atomic weapons —all of the mineral sourced from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Left: When this photo was taken, smoke billowed 20,000 feet above Hiroshima while smoke from the burst of the first atomic bomb had spread over 10,000 feet on the target at the base of the rising column. Right: Atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, taken by Charles Levy. Source: Wikipedia.

By Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden. 15 August 2023 (IDN) — 78 years ago, the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima on August 6 and on Nagasaki on August 9 was premeditated mass murder.

President Harry Truman had a workable alternative to using the atom bomb- to cooperate with Stalin, as Roosevelt and Churchill had done on the Western front and in the Soviet advance on Japan, rather than making it a race for control. Indeed, it was the Soviet advance that convinced Japan to surrender.

Dmitriy Vesselov, a third-generation Semipalatinsk nuclear-testing survivor. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri, Multimedia Director of IDN-INPS.

VIENNA. 13 August 2023 (IDN) — At a side event co-organized by the Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan in Vienna, Soka Gakkai International (SGI), and Center for International Security and Policy (Kazakhstan), Dmitriy Vesselov—a third-generation Semipalatinsk nuclear-testing survivor—spoke at the first session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) beginning of August 2023 in Vienna.

Photo from L to R: Ivana Nikolic Hughes (NAPF), Nikolai Sokov (VCDNP) , Christine Muttonen (PNND), Chie Sunada (SGI). Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri, Multimedia Director of IDN-INPS.

By Aurora Weiss

VIENNA. 11 August 2023 (IDN) — At the two-week-long Preparatory Committee meeting here for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International (SGI)—in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)—and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation organized a side event. (P 16) ITALIAN | JAPANESE

Photo: Arms Control and Nonproliferation. Credit: United States Department of State.

By Sergio Duarte

The writer is an Ambassador, former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, and President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

NEW YORK. 9 August 2023 (IDN) — Nuclear weapons burst into the international scenario 21 days after the signature of the Charter of the United Nations. For that chronological reason, the Charter does not mention nuclear weapons. (P 15) INDONESIAN | JAPANESE | KOREAN

This undated picture released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on 26 July 2023 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (central) laying a wreath at the Chinese People’s Volunteers Martyrs’ Cemetery in South Pyongan Province ahead of the 70th Anniversary of the victory of the Fatherland Liberation War. Photo: VCG

By Joseph Gerson*

NEW YORK. 9 August 2023 (IDN) — Along with the obvious and increasing military tensions across the Taiwan Strait and in the South China/West Philippine Sea, the continuing danger that confrontational policies, arms racing, and provocative military operations across and around the Korean Peninsula could all too easily trigger escalation to the unthinkable.

Vanessa Lanteigne, Program Officer at Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), presenting proposals on Gender Inclusivity at the NPT Working Group at the UN on 23 July.

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS. 9 August 2023 (IDN) — The United Nations has been a vociferous and longstanding advocate of gender empowerment in its political, social and economic agenda characterized by 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including poverty and hunger eradication, quality education, human rights and climate change.

But it has remained relatively silent on the yawning gender disparity on the campaign for nuclear disarmament, which has been overwhelmingly dominated by men. (P14) JAPANESE | THAI | TURKISH

Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” Oppenheimer quoted a line from Bhagawad Gita, when the nuclear blast took place. Source: The Wire

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN. 4 August 2023 (IDN) — The release of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer sparked a media frenzy just weeks before the first session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in Vienna.

It is a biopic about the “father” of the atomic bomb, which wiped out the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, killing between 129,000 and 226,000 people. (P13) GERMAN | JAPANESE

Photo Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri, Multimedia Director of IDN-INPS. (From L to R): Alicia Sanders-Zakre, Policy and Research Coordinator at International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Alimzhan Akhmetov, the Founder-Director of the Center for International Security and Policy, Kazakhstan, Dmitriy Vesselov a third generation Semipalatinsk nuclear-testing survivor, Arman Baissuanov, Director of International Security at the Kazakh Foreign Ministry, Hirotsugu Terasaki, Director General of Peace and Global Issues, Soka Gakkai International (SGI), Sanya Rajpal (SGI-UK)

By Aurora Weiss

VIENNA. 4 August 2023 (IDN) — The Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan, along with Japan and other Pacific Island states, is one of the most challenging in terms of the consequences of testing or use of nuclear weapons. Being a young state, Kazakhstan is facing a very heavy heritage and its difficult legacy. (P 12) HINDI | JAPANESE

Trinity test, 16 July 1945. Source: OSTI.GOV

By Norman Solomon*

SAN FRANCISCO, USA. 2 August 2023 (IDN) — In 1980, when I asked the press office at the U.S. Department of Energy to send me a listing of nuclear bomb test explosions, the agency mailed me an official booklet with the title “Announced United States Nuclear Tests, July 1945 Through December 1979”. As you’d expect, the Trinity test in New Mexico was at the top of the list. Second on the list was Hiroshima. Third was Nagasaki.

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