Media Release from ACDN
Published in French on 15 August 2022

Now, when the war in Ukraine is showing that "nuclear deterrence" is bankrupt, it is time for us to demand multilateral, universal and complete nuclear disarmament - i.e. the negotiated, planned and duly controlled elimination of all nuclear and radioactive weapons, in conformity with Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the UN Charter, and International Law.

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Every year since 2001 the Nuclear Disarmament Flame in Saintes has been lit on August 6 (the anniversary of Hiroshima 1945) and has burned till August 9 (that of Nagasaki).

To begin with the messages from the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were read. Then Marie-Line Cheminade, a leading member of the City Council, spoke in the name of the Mayor of Saintes to explain the city’s membership of the « Abolition 2000 » and the « Mayors for Peace » networks. Then Benoît Biteau, MEP, explained why he regularly participates in this ceremony.

Two wreaths were laid at the foot of the Monument to the Fallen, for the City and for ACDN "Never Again!"

Then the Nuclear Disarmament Flame was lit.

With two war veterans’ flags lowered in homage, a minute’s silence was observed by all present, in memory of the victims of those two atom bombs, but also the survivors, the hibakusha, whose fates were scarcely more enviable, and the anonymous victims of the subsequent 2000 nuclear tests, of which 500 were atmospheric not underground.

New poems by Carole Le Kouddar were recited.

In conclusion the "Red Vagabond" performed songs of peace, humour, love and fraternity joined by the audience, who then lit candles at the foot of the flame-holder.

As the president of ACDN reminded us, this moment of memory is also an affirmation of life and a preventive act: refusing war and refusing the nuclear Crime against Humanity - a crime planned and prepared with our taxes, without the French people ever being consulted.

This intolerable situation cannot continue.

No more nuclear or radioactive weapons! Those monstrous arms will not solve humanity’s problems, nor will those called ’conventional’. On the contrary, they render them insoluble. To live, we need to disarm. That is a categorical imperative.

As Albert Camus wrote on 8 August 1945, it is not a prayer, it is an order that needs to rise from the people to their leaders: Disarm!

That is why ACDN calls on every MP and senator to sign a Parliamentary Bill aimed at organising a referendum on France’s participation in abolishing nuclear nad radioacitve weapons - and calls on every citizen to urge them to do so. (See attached documents).

Action des Citoyens pour le
Désarmement Nucléaire (ACDN)
31, Rue du Cormier – 17100 - SAINTES
Tel : +33 (0)6 73 50 76 61
contact@acdn.net www.acdn.net

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Proposition Parlementaire de Loi visant à organiser un référendum sur la participation de la France à l’abolition des armes nucléaires et radioactives (JUIN 2022) + Formulaire de soutien à retourner :

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Sud Ouest, 6 August 2022, Article de Séverine Joubert :