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From the Olympics Toword Tomorrow
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NAOC's choice of peace project 'symbolic'
Williams, head of the U.S.-based International Campaign to Ban Land Mines, who won last year's Nobel Peace Prize, suggested that with the world coming together in Nagano for the Olympics is symbolic of the way that world opinion is lining up against land mines.
The American added that the voices of millions of people around the world who have to live in terror of the explosive devices will be heard by virtue of her presence and that of British antimine activist Chris Moon at the Olympic Games in Nagano, central Japan.
Moon, who will be one of the final runners in Nagano's Olympic torch relay, likened his work against land mines as a ''bright spot on the horizon,'' but added that he did not expect ''peace to break out overnight.''
But, the theme of the opening ceremony is always peace which is very right and hopeful,'' said Moon, a former British Royal Army officer who lost his lower leg and right hand to a land mine during a land mine-clearing operation in Mozambique.
Makoto Kobayashi, director general of NAOC, remarked that NAOC wanted to use the Olympics to send a message of peace to the world with the hope that the 21st century will be a century without any conflicts or wars.
And for this reason, the Nagano Olympic organizers have decided to focus on a campaign against antipersonnel mines, Kobayashi said.
Williams arrived in Nagano together with Moon on Saturday.
(Kyodo News)
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Copyright 1998 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun