BUDDHIST LEADER CALLS FOR 2015 NUCLEAR ABOLITION SUMMIT

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 (Bernama) -- A Buddhist leader today called for the

summit for nuclear abolition in 2015, to be held in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to

ensure that "the growing momentum toward abolition of nuclear weapons becomes

irreversible."

President of the Soka Gakkai International Buddhist Association, Daisaku

Ikeda, said holding the summit on the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of

these cities, and in the year of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review

Conference, would bring home to world leaders the terrible destructive capacity

of nuclear weapons.

This would also help ensure the necessary action toward their abolition,

thereby marking the effective end of the nuclear weapons era, he said.

Ikeda, who has been in the anti-nuclear movement since the late 1950s,

strongly reaffirms his endorsement of the idea of Nuclear Weapons Convention,

saying that humanity and nuclear weapons cannot exist together.

In his proposal titled "Human Security and Sustainability: Sharing Reverence

For The Dignity of Life", Ikeda points to the possibility of a more hopeful

phase in the struggle to realise a nuclear-free world.

Reflecting on the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March last year, Ikeda said

Japan should make a rapid transition to energy policies not reliant on nuclear

power generation, and to intensify its involvement in renewable energy

technology and research, both domestically and to support efforts in developing

countries.

-- BERNAMA

DR JS