Press release, Monday 25 July 2016

As every year, ACDN is organising a ceremony in memory of the victims of the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on August 6 and 9.

The Nuclear Disarmament Flame, first lit in May 2001 by Mme Bernadette Schmitt, the Mayor of Saintes, on the occasion of the first Nuclear Disarmament Days, will be re-lit on Saturday 6 August at 11am at the Monument to the Fallen, Place du Palais de Justice, Saintes, and will burn until Tuesday 9 August at 11.02 am, the time of the bombing of Nagasaki, when it will be extinguished, at the same spot. This will be an occasion to listen to testimonies, poems and songs, with a focus towards both the past and the future. The ceremonies will begin at 10.45 am.

Saintes is a member of the international “Abolition 2000” network and the association of “Mayors for Peace” which groups over 7000 cities across the world. The aim of these two organisations is the abolition of nuclear weapons, i.e. a ban similar to the bans on other weapons of mass destruction and annihilation, leading to their complete elimination under strict and efficient international control, with a view to creating a world without nuclear weapons.

These ceremonies are public and open to all persons who share this wish and vision.