Peace laureates publish declaration against nuclear arms

[bananas]

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Peace laureates publish declaration against nuclear arms

HIROSHIMA (Kyodo) Seventeen winners of the Nobel Peace Prize are calling for a world free of nuclear weapons in a joint declaration that was published Monday in the Chugoku Shimbun in Hiroshima, following U.S. President Barack Obama's recent commitment to eliminate nuclear arms.

<snip>

The laureates include Northern Ireland peace activist Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Mohamed ElBaradei, the Egyptian chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and American Jody Williams, who has campaigned against the use of land mines.

<snip>

The 17 winners include former South African President Frederik W. de Klerk, who made public in 1993 his country's nuclear weapons development and dismantlement, and his compatriot, Bishop Desmond Tutu, who opposed apartheid, as well as Oscar Arias Sanchez and Jose Ramos-Horta, the presidents of Costa Rica and East Timor.

Asian laureates such as Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, former South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus, as well as Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathai, also joined the initiative.

* Note to moderators: Nuclear proliferation is both an Environment and Energy problem.