ATOM Project Hon. Amb. and Nuclear Weapons Testing Survivor Karipbek Kuyukov Shares his Story at Berlin’s Westerwelle Foundation

November 23, 2015

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!

I would like to thank the organisers of the event and the opportunity to speak before you on what I consider to be one of the most important issues of our time.

As I stand here before you I am full of sympathy for the recent victims of terrorism and their families from Russia, Lebanon, Paris and most recently Mali. As I see the expansion of the likes of the so called Islamic State and Al Qaieda fundamentalists spreading their carnage around the world I am also increasingly concerned about a serious threat of nuclear weapons material falling into the hands of terrorists. I cannot stand by without alerting you all about this danger which as far as we know has to date been impeded by security forces in various parts of the world.

Nuclear weapons are an evil and misguided way of purportedly providing security. Their very existence poses a serious threat through either an accident waiting to happen or a terrorist event with their use. Our world now has a new urgency posed by fundamentalist terrorists that will stop at nothing to kill as many people as they can. The mere fact that we have so many nuclear weapons which are sometimes less well secured in parts of this world makes this call more urgent. Let us tell world leaders to begin serious negotiations on finally eradicate all nuclear weapons worldwide, responsibly and urgently starting with the immediate entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty!

This new type of terror threat demands our attention to ensuring the safe decommissionning and disposal of all nuclear weapons for the sake of mankind.

My parents were live witnesses to the nuclear testing that had been conducted at the Soviet Union’s Semipalatinsk nuclear test site for over 40 years. They watched as the mushroom clouds formed in the air and the soil flew up into the stratosphere. I have seen many children born with deformations. My own parents had two children who didn’t live to be one year old. I want to ask you, dear delegates, “How can you allow for these weapons to exist?”

I am the victim of the nuclear testing at Semipalatinsk, I was born without arms, but I manage to express my creativity through painting with my mouth and feet. I have devoted my life and art to making sure that no one – and nowhere – else suffers the devastating effects of nuclear weapons. I have traveled throughout the world on behalf of The ATOM Project and I have spoken out against nuclear weapons, calling on everyone to sign a petition to world leaders to ban them for good.

I represent some 1.5 million fellow Kazakhs and I also hope the millions of other victims from Algeria, Polinesian Islands, Japan, etc.  Speaking on behalf of all victims of nuclear testing, I want my generation to be the last generation to bear the effects of this monstrous evil.

Please sign TheATOMProjet.org petition now at over 210,000 signatures from over 100 countries and let’s finally put an end to this madness. The Cold War has ended but a new era spurned by Islamic terrorism makes this call ever more urgent. Let us not give these terrorists the chance to acquire any nuclear weapons grade material to sow their carnage on humanity.