Hiroshima: Three citizens inspectors arrested at SHAPE during NATO protest

European youth mark 61st anniversary of Hiroshima with commemorations and citizens weapons inspection at SHAPE
Three citizens inspectors - two from Italy and one from Cyprus- arrested.

Brussels, 6th August - A group of 50 young people from 15 European countries today remembered the 61st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6th August 1945. The participants from Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, England, Finland,France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and Wales took part in a commemoration at the "Atomic Bomb SurvivorsPark" in Mons, before a demonstration at the main entrance of SHAPE, the NATOmilitary headquarters.

Following the demonstration, a number of the young people carried out a citizens weapons inspection in the base, in order to search for information related to the illegal nuclear weapon policy of NATO. Staff at SHAPE are responsible for planning for the use of the 480 US nuclear weapons based NATO bases in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey and the UK, a potential of over 4.000Hiroshima bombs.

Valentino Pase (19) from Italy, who lives close to the nuclear weapon storage base at Aviano, stated: "We are here as European youth. It doesn?t matterwhich nation we are from because we care about the future of the world. We are from Aviano, so we know how it is to live so close to weapons of mass-destruction. We are not only here to protest against the nuclear weapons of Aviano, we want a nuclear free world starting in Europe."

The non-violent trespass of the base took place to oppose the presence of 480secret US nuclear weapons that are stored at air bases in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Turkey. The decision to continue hosting these nuclear weapons in Europe shows that the United States and NATO allies are not serious about fulfilling their obligations to nuclear disarmament under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The young people conducted a ?citizens weapons inspection? of the base, in an analogy with the inspection of Iraq and Iran, in order to search for more information about the nuclear weapons in Europe, and confront people working in the base about their role in the planning for the use of weapons of mass destruction.

The commemoration actions come at the end of a 150km anti-nuclear bike tour across Belgium, which started in Ypres on Wednesday 2nd August, and ended in Brussels on Saturday 5th August. There will be a further commemoration in Brussels at the war memorial at "les Etangs d'Ixelles" in Ixelles (Brussels), beginning at 20:00.