LEAD: Hiroshima to mark 59th anniversary of atomic bombing Friday

0 Comments | Asian Political News, August 9, 2004

HIROSHIMA, Aug. 5 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDS INFO)

Hiroshima will mark the 59th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city on Friday, with the mayor expected to criticize the United States for continuing to develop nuclear weaponry in defiance of international regulations, city officials said Thursday.

In his annual peace declaration, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba is also expected to demand the Japanese government reject moves to revise the country's pacifist Constitution at a ceremony to be attended by thousands of people, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Akiba will call on the U.S. government to have greater respect for international rules and demand it lead efforts by nuclear powers toward the total elimination of nuclear arms.

The mayor is a former Social Democratic Party lawmaker known for opposing constitutional change as well as Japan's dispatch of troops to Iraq for U.S.-led reconstruction work.

He appears willing to challenge Koizumi and senior Liberal Democratic Party politicians inclined to revise the war-renouncing Constitution.

Akiba will also express concern about North Korea's nuclear development program and voice hope for the success of the 2005 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The 45-minute ceremony will start at 8 a.m. in Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park. Other guests will include Alexander Losyukov, the Russian ambassador to Japan, and Pakistani Ambassador to Japan Kamran Niaz.

U.N. Undersecretary General Nobuyasu Abe will also attend on behalf of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

At a press conference in Hiroshima, Losyukov expressed support for Hiroshima, which is seeking to take the initiative in achieving the complete abolition of nuclear weapons, saying, ''It is good to set a target.''

But he also told reporters of a need to prevent nuclear proliferation. ''There are terrorists as well as country leaders who cannot adequately control nuclear arms.''

In a separate press conference, Niaz justified Pakistan's nuclear testing by citing ''security concern'' and blaming its neighbor India.

''They (India) exploded nuclear devices. Pakistan was forced to follow,'' the ambassador said, adding that the tension between the two rivals should not be the only focus of the international community.

Concerns over nuclear proliferation should be addressed ''by those (countries) who themselves have thousands of nuclear weapons and...the ability to destroy,'' he said.

The Hiroshima city government had asked seven nuclear weapon nations -- Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, Russia and the United States -- as well as North Korea to send government representatives to the ceremony.

North Korea had made no response as of Thursday, while the other countries except Russia and Pakistan declined the invitations.