Monday, June 09, 2008

Rudd lays wreath for Hiroshima victims

Kevin Rudd visits Hiroshima memorial Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has used his visit to the Japanese city of Hiroshima to lay a wreath to the victims of the atomic bomb which was dropped on the city in 1945.

Mr Rudd is the first Australian prime minister to visit Hiroshima's Peace Park and Memorial.

Accompanied by the city mayor, he laid a wreath and then toured the park's museum, which graphically demonstrates the impact of the bombing in which more than 200,000 people are believed to have died.

Mr Rudd used the visit to call for renewed efforts to curtail nuclear proliferation.

"Hiroshima should cause the world community to resolve afresh that all humankind must exert their every effort for peace in this 21st century," he said.

"We, the people of the Asia-Pacific region, should resolve afresh to make this Asia-Pacific century a century of peace and, for the world at large, that we should aspire now for a world free of nuclear weapons."

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