The delegation of the Vietnam Peace Committee to the 2001 World Conference against A & H Bombs would like to extend its warm greetings to esteemed delegates and friends, representatives of national and international peace organizations. Also, allow me to express our profound thanks to the Conference Secretariat for facilitating our participation in the Conference today.
The delegates participate in the Conference with the deepest feelings in memory of victims of the atomic bombs dropped on the two cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States 56 years ago. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a shock which continues to awake to conscience of the whole progressive humankind. It warns the world about the danger and threat to our life and turns many people into pacifists struggling for friendship, cooperation and sustainable development. Those are the reasons we gather here today.
The Vietnamese people have been enthusiastic in their aspiration for peace, which is the basis of real national independence, democracy, freedom and happiness. Therefore, the Vietnam Peace Committee was established only one year after the foundation of the World Peace Council (November 19th, 1950) in the fierce context of the resistance for Vietnamese national liberation.
Having suffered great sacrifices and miseries in various wars caused by imperialists, the Vietnamese people strongly sympathize with the vast losses that the Japanese people carried as a consequence of the atomic bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as from the disastrous after-effects of the strong radioactivity which affected the environment over the coming generations. In the war of invasion implemented by the United States, paddy fields and mountainous areas in Vietnam received one hundred thousand tones of toxins, especially orange agent (Dioxin), from the US air-force. Millions of innocent Vietnamese people, including children have been forced to live with changes in DNA structure. This causes abnormalities in life forms, including human babies, for generations. Evidence such as this denounces the barbarity of genocidal weapons. With the support and assistance of people around the world, the Government of Vietnam and the Vietnamese people have tried with their all might to surmount the consequences of the chemical weapons.
Nowadays, the world arms race seems to have abated, since the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the communist block in Eastern Europe. However, civil wars, violent conflicts among states, border disputes, ethnic and religious confrontations still linger. Behind these conflicts are warlike imperialists and national extremists whose plot is to cause an unstable situation for the purpose of steering peace movements for their own benefit. The leaders of the U.S. are the instigators of these trends. They not only break their promises regarding their obligations under the ABM treaty, but also continue to pursue implementation of the NMD plan. It is, in fact, an attempt to fuel the arms race to deter progressive and peace loving forces around the world through the threat of mass killing weapons. The leaders of the U.S. have never abandoned their role of international policemen.
Faced with the contemporary international situation, together with all Vietnamese organizations, the Vietnam Peace Committee always reaffirms its continuous active contributions to peace protection and stability in South East Asia and throughout the world. Any interference, plot of separation among the states or racial and ethnic conflict must be strictly condemned. Above all every intention of pushing our world into a new arm race must be prevented. The Vietnamese people wish to further consolidate traditional cooperation among the peoples of the world.
The responsibility of solidarity in the struggle against aggressive warfare and in peace protection initiated by the World Peace Council over 50 years ago is still an urgent requirement in the new era. We demand the complete destruction of all nuclear weapon arsenals and a strict ban on the use of nuclear or any other type of genocidal weapons. The Vietnamese people recognizes that pursuing the renovation process for the ultimate goal of making a powerful country with wealthy people living in an equitable, democratic and civilized society is the decisive factor contributing to peace consolidation and stability in the South East Asia region and the world.
We wish all success for the World Conference.
To the 2001 Wolrd Conference against A & H Bombs