By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Aug. 6: Exiled Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama proposed dialogue as a means for conflict resolution and urged global disarmament and demilitarization on the anniversary of Japan’s Atomic bomb tragedy. Japan marked the 75th anniversary of the fateful bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Thursday.
The 84-year-old Tibetan leader urged governments, organizations and individuals to “rededicate themselves to making the achievement of peace the center-piece of our lives”.
“Despite many great developments that also took place, the 20th century was an era of violence in which some 200 million people were killed, including the horrific use of nuclear weapons. Now, in our increasingly interdependent world, we have a chance to make this a more peaceful century,” the Dalai Lama wrote in a statement on August 6.
The Nobel laureate who is seen as a figure of peace and reconciliation around the globe recommended dialogue to solve differences and doing away with the “us and them” mentality. “We need to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons, with the ultimate aim of a demilitarized world. War means killing. Violence leads to counter violence. We need to put an end to combat and the production of weapons and construct a more peaceful world,” he further wrote.
On Thursday, survivors of the cataclysmic event marked the day at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in the city of the namesake in memory of those dead, despite the risks of Covid-19 spread. The exact number of the death toll of the two cities in Japan are not known, although conservative estimation put the figure of those killed and wounded to over 150,000 in Hiroshima and 75,000 in Nagasaki.
