Fidel Castro meets with members of the Peace Boat

Leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro met with the members of the Peace Boat, who arrived in Havana today.

The meeting took place at the Convention Center of the Cuban capital with representatives of the solidarity brigade comprised of almost one thousand Japanese activists from the Peace Boat, which is touring several countries to strengthen bonds of friendship and solidarity.

“What we must do is to cooperate with you in everything we can, aware of the dangers humankind faces” told Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro some hundred Japanese members of the Peace Boat project.

During the exchange the Cuban leader stressed how dangerous are nuclear weapons, and the tensions aroused by the US and Israel around Iran.

He warned that the conflict could escalate from a conventional clash to a nuclear one, if not stopped in time.

Fidel referred to the “nuclear winter” theory, by US Rutgers University Proffesor Alan Robock, which says that the dust and smoke resulting from 100 nuclear explosions could prevent sun rays from reaching the surface, causing a drastic drop in temperatures and killing all living forms on Earth.

He noted that the US used its only two nuclear bombs to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while at this moment there are over 25 000 scattered throughout the world, each one of them, he assured, with hundred of times more destructive power than those two.

Junko Watanabe, one of the survivors of the US atomic attack against the Japanese city of Nagasaki, who currently lives in Brazil, is one of the members of the Peace Boat. This is the 14th visit of the Japanese ship to Cuba, and it coincides with International Peace Day, established in 2001 by the UN General Assembly.

Watanabe, spoke of the horrors she, along her parents and brother lived through the aftermath of the bombing, specially the effects of the “black rain” which resulted from it.

Fidel said it was important for people to hear about what Watanabe and others experienced, as well as to know how fragile life is on Earth now, due to the destruction of the environment.

He spoke of the 26 “Reflections” he has published to warn the world about the dangers on humankind, both from nuclear war and pollution. He noted that we are consuming oil at 100 million barrels per day rate, and have already exhausted half the reserves of the world on a product that took some 400 million years to be created.

Peace Boat NGO executive Masumi Matsumura presented Fidel with gifts on behalf of the almost a thousand Japanese members of the group who are visiting Cuba. She expressed her organization’s rejection of the US economic, financial and commercial blockade against Cuba, and demanded the release of the five Cuban antiterrorists unjustly incarcerated in the US.

Under the slogan “Learn from Past Wars to Build a Future of Peace,” the Japanese Peace Boat NGO has organized international sea voyages twice a year since 1983, with the purpose of promoting peaceful solutions to world problems.

During their stay in Havana, the visitors will tour places where important health, sports, cultural and production projects are being carried out.

They will also visit the Tarará International Camp in East Havana where they will learn about a Cuban program to treat thousands of children who are victims of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.

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