Greenpeace activists attempt
a citizens' inspection of NATO headquarters
in Brussels.
16/04/2005 — We all know that weapons of
mass destruction are bad. Especially when
"evil" people have them. But what
about when they're right in your own back
yard - does that make Belgium "evil"?
Or Italy? Or the UK? Sick of this hypocrisy,
armies of Bombspotters have descended on Belgium
to conduct their own "citizen inspections".
At least these weapons of mass destruction
can easily be found, in no less than six European
countries.
Our activists joined with regular Bombspotting
activists to inspect three military facilities
in Belgium, with the aim of pressuring NATO
member states to renounce their nuclear weapons
arsenal. The inspections took place at Kleine
Brogel Air base which houses nuclear weapons,
NATO's Brussels Headquarters and its SHAPE
military headquarters in Mons/Bergen.
Unlike UN Weapons Inspectors, who seem to
take a subtle approach to weapons-inspection
attire, our activists dressed as 'walking
missiles', with "NUCLEAR FREE NATO"
emblazoned across them.
Six European countries (Belgium, Netherlands,
Germany, Turkey, Italy and UK) currently have
an estimated 480 American air-launched nuclear
bombs based on their territories. Isn't this
a bit hypocritical? Our nuclear campaigner
Nicky Davies thinks so. "At a time when
NATO members are urging countries like Iran
to abandon their nuclear ambitions, we have
the hypocritical situation in which non-nuclear
NATO states play host to US weapons,"
she said.
There seems to be growing political and public
unease amongst a number of European countries
towards hosting US nuclear weapons, with Belgium
among them. These citizen weapons inspections
have grown out of this frustration at the
continued secrecy of nuclear weapon states.
Interestingly, the Bombspotters are actually
upholding International Law, which declares
the "threat and use" of all nuclear
weapons to be illegal.
"We are calling on NATO to disarm and
become a nuclear-free alliance as a first
step towards the global abolition of nuclear
weapons," said Nicky, from among the
walking bombs.
