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Bell-ringing ceremony held in Minsk to commemorate Fukushima nuclear accident

A bell-ringing ceremony was held at the center of Minsk on Monday as part of a global campaign of commemorating the victims of the March 2011 accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Roman Catholic priest Uladzislaw Zavalnyuk led the ceremony at the Nagasaki Bell memorial near the St. Simon and St. Helena Church (Red Church) in Independence Square, Yury Papow, the designer of the memorial, told BelaPAN.

"Today is the second anniversary of the Fukushima accident and the tsunami that claimed 32,000 human lives," he said. "Catholic, Buddhist and Shinto bells are ringing all over Japan today. In Belarus, only the Nagasaki Bell was involved in the commemoration campaign."

The first "Planterary Bell Ringing" campaign was held in 2001 in commemoration of the April 26, 1986 nuclear accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The second campaign marked 25 years since the accident.

The Nagasaki Bell memorial was unveiled in Minsk 12 years ago. It was created with donations from Catholic residents of Nagasaki, one of the two Japanese cities that were destroyed by US nuclear bombs in 1945.