29.08.2019

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: Today is the International Day against Nuclear Tests

August 29 is the day to remind humanity of the dire consequences of using nuclear weapons. UN eight Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “Creating a world free of nuclear weapons is a top priority for the United Nations.”

This top priority is still not completed, because the world free of nuclear weapons has not yet been created. Although back in December 2009, the UN General Assembly declared 29 August the International Day against Nuclear Tests by unanimously adopting resolution 64/35.

 

Let me remind you, the resolution was submitted by Kazakhstan proposing precisely this date. 29 August is the closing day of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. Incidentally, this was the first resolution proposed by the young republic of Kazakhstan.

In the USSR, work on the creation of a nuclear arsenal began in the 1930s and the first atomic weapons test was successfully carried out at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site on August 29, 1949. From that moment until its closure, more than 450 nuclear weapons tests were carried out there. As a result, the entire territory of the eastern part of Kazakhstan was exposed to radiation pollution. The consequences of pollution turned out to be catastrophic: many residents of nearby villages were born with deviations and many became seriously ill.
In 1989, a poet Olzhas Suleimenov founded the Nevada Semipalatinsk movement, which fought to close the test site. It united the people of the USSR and the USA opposed to nuclear tests. Due to this movement and public support, the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site was closed by decree of Nursultan Nazarbayev on August 29, 1991. Several years later Kazakhstan voluntarily gave up Kazakhstan's nuclear arsenal. But even today, the environmental situation in the region of Semipalatinsk remains unsatisfactory. People living close to the test site still experience the consequences of its years of use.
29 August is the day to remind humanity that we must never forget the terrible consequences of nuclear tests and must remember what price had been paid for them. This day reminds us that politics is not above man and nature. There is nothing above the RIGHT TO LIVE.