Hiroshima, July 1st 2011 - Mayors for Peace announced today that 71 new member cities have joined during the month of May 2011. The network of local governments now counts 4,803 member cities in 151 countries. With the new members Japan now tops 1,000 members. Also Mayor Alson Kelen from the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands is amongst the new members. The Bikini Atoll is still suffering of the terrible consequences of the March 1st 1954 'Bravo' US atomic explosion.
Mayor Alson Kelen from Bikini Atoll reminds us of the global radioactive contamination as a result of the more than 2,000 nuclear tests since 1945, an average of one nuclear test every 11 days for the past 66 years!
Mayor Kelen testified recently in Japan during a conference ''That test, and that day – like radiation itself – still lingers in the Marshall Islands after 57 years, and it will not go away. Bravo was not our first experience with nuclear weapons. March 6 2011 marked the 65th anniversary of the day that we were moved off our islands by the US government for its atomic weapons testing program. The US moved us three times in two years. At one atoll, Rongerik, we nearly starved to death. Our final move, in 1948, was to Kili Island – 400 miles away from Bikini. Sadly, Kili remains home to most Bikinians, and life there remains difficult.''
The 71 new members last month illustrate that the recruitment drive towards the August 6th Hiroshima commemoration is gathering steam. The new members welcomed today are from Australia (1), Brazil (6), Germany (2), Ghana (2), Israel (1), Italy (3), Japan (42), Marshall Islands (1), Peru (1), Saudi Arabia (1), Senegal (3), Sri Lanka (1), Sweden (1), Thailand (2), UK (2) and USA (2).
The network welcomes Riyadh, the capital and first member of Saudi Arabia, and 105th capital city to join.
With 1,016 new members in 2010 Mayors for Peace recorded its largest annual growth in its 29 year history and continued into the first months of 2011. But membership recruitment dropped significantly both in the months of April and May 2011.
However today many initiatives are underway with both Mayors, Associations of Local Governments as well as the 2020 Vision Campaigners around the world working united to reach the 5,000 mark by August 6th.
In Europe the Mayors of Klosterneuburg (Austria), Frogn (Norway) and Glasgow (Scotland) are urging their colleagues to join Mayors for Peace before the 66th commemoration in Hiroshima. In Germany and the UK the national Mayors for Peace sections are also stepping up efforts, while in Latvia and Wallonia (Belgium) it is the associations of local governments inviting their members to stand in solidarity with Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In North America the Mayor of Amqui is urging his colleagues of Quebec to join before August 6th, while in the USA the North-American coordinator Jackie Cabasso is following up on the latest US Conference of Mayors conference resolution which is urging US Mayors to join.
In Africa the 2020 Vision Campaigners in both Ghana and Senegal are taking the leadership and work closely with the national associations.
Also in Latin America the 2020 Vision Campaigners in Brazil and Peru are coordinating recruitment efforts with the FNP (Brazilian National Front of Mayors) and ABM (Associação Brasileira de Municípios) and the Federación de Municipios Libres de Perú (FEMULP). In Argentina both the Federación Argentina de Municipios (FAM) and IC-Argentina who are urging Mayors to stand in solidarity with Japan. IC-Argentina, a private consulting firm working with local governments throughout Latin America, made a special webportal and mailed out an appeal to their entire database of over 17,000 contacts. Also the Federacion Colombiana de Municipios (FCM) is expected to invite its members the upcoming weeks.
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