Thursday, 21 January 2010 22:04 Mungpi
New Delhi (Mizzima) - With Burma nurturing nuclear ambitions, the country’s pro-democracy activists in Japan are gearing up to hold a protest rally on Friday, as representatives from Asian countries including Burma assemble in Tokyo to attend a seminar on ‘Nuclear Security’ with officials of the IAEA.
A Burmese woman activist in Tokyo told Mizzima on Thursday that the protest is aimed at highlighting the Burmese peoples’ plight under the military dispensation and to draw attention to the junta’s planned nuclear project.
“It is our duty to protest and highlight what is happening in Burma to the world. Besides, we want the international community to pay attention to the junta’s nuclear ambitions,” she said.
According to a Japanese Foreign Ministry release, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Japanese Foreign Ministry are jointly holding the seminar titled ‘Seminar on Strengthening Nuclear Security in Asia’.
Representatives of 17 Asian countries - the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations members, plus China, Japan, the ROK, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan - will attend the seminar to be chaired by Mr. Kaoru Naito, President of the Nuclear Material Control Center (NMCC).
The event is a follow-up of the previous seminar held in 2006. During the seminar participating countries will conduct a review of measures to strengthen nuclear security, which were implemented after the 2006 seminar, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.
Military-ruled Burma came under media spotlight, when a United States naval vessel in June 2009 detected a North Korean vessel, suspected of carrying illegal weapons, believed to be heading towards Burma.
While some speculate that Burma might be nurturing a nuclear weapons ambition, evidence till date has failed to reveal any sign of the Burmese junta going in for a nuclear programme.
Russia, one of the few countries having a good rapport with the Burmese regime, announced in 2007 that it is helping Burma in developing a nuclear research reactor. The centre will have a 10 megawatt light water nuclear reactor with low enriched uranium consisting of less than 20 per cent uranium-235.
Friday, January 22, 2010
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