POLITICO: Kazakhstan has led by example
18:44, 15 April 2010
ASTANA. April 15. KAZINFORM In the article published by The POLITICO newspaper UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who flew by helicopter to the remote Ground Zero site, where atomic bomb tests were carried out, was quoted as saying: "More than 450 nuclear bombs were tested here with a terrible effect on people and nature. They have totally destroyed our environment; poisoned earth, rivers and lakes, children suffering from cancer, birth defects."
"In 1991 President Nazarbayev took extraordinary leadership by closing the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site and banished all nuclear weapons. Today, this site stands as a symbol of disarmament and hope for the future", Ban Ki-moon said.
Mr. Ban said he would use the nuclear security summit in Washington to urge the leaders of Russia, the US and other nuclear States to abandon all nuclear weapons. "To realize a world free of nuclear weapons is a top priority of the United Nations and the most ardent aspiration of human beings. Here in Semipalatinsk, I call on all nuclear weapons States to follow suit of Kazakhstan. For inspiration, they can look to Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan has led by example", he declared.