Shiva Shrestha
President, Save the World
Nepal
I read the report of the 1996 and 1998
World conference against A & H bombs and was dismayed and hurt by the
pain & sorrow of those writing about their experience. I felt the terror
of the bombs over Hiroshima & Nagasaki, the long pain & suffering
of the hibakusha. I wished there were no bombs as dreadful as those that
fell on Hiroshima & Nagasaki & No Hibakusha to remind us of the
hate that one nation felt for the citizens of another nation.
The hibakusha people are innocent as are those citizens who were caught by the A & H-bomb on that tragic & sad day of August 6 &9,1945. For their Sake I wish that this generation would devote more time & effort for peace so that a thousand million generations to come will have no hibakusha, no dreadful death. I wish for peace to reign over all of us so that the lotus flower of peace will be there for all to pluck & enjoy with reverence.
In Nepal, there was peace yesterday. Today,
peace is in danger. We have many reports in the newspapers about lootings,
killings & encounters. This makes us very sad but it is not the sad
news of the Hibakusha, which engulfs a whole civilization. But still
sad news is there, suffering is there, pain is there and there is the fear
of uncertainty. In Nepal, the hibakusha are those that live under
grinding poverty, ignorance & ill health. For Nepal & the Nepalese
peace is freedom that comes from employment, freedom that comes from useful
education & freedom that springs from good health. We hope for these
freedoms even as the hibakusha hope for love. But, both Pakistan and India
have tested (exploded) atomic
devices. The whole of south Asia is in
danger despite the promise not to first use these weapons of mass destruction.
We pray that the leader of these two nations will encounter only peace
& fulfill their pledge to dismantle nuclear weapons. We in Nepal
think that it is better for the people of these two nations to sit-down
and talk for the demolition of nuclear weapons (atomic arsenals), to take
the war to the peace conference than to wage war in the paddy fields, the
huts and work place. After all we have inherited peace from the Buddha
who is of this soil, these rocks, these rivers and the surrounding seas.
Peace is a legacy, which we bestow to the
world-let us, preserve it, protect it. In Nepal, when we talk about the
bomb over Nagasaki & Hiroshima people are amazed & non-believing
about the extent of the destruction. We show them the video footage &
those that have seen the graphic display have expressed their solidarity
to the cause of peace. It is with this vote of hope that I wish to
demand from
you for more information, which we will
share with our people in Nepal.