(01/08/2006)

60 European youth start nuclear disarmament bike tour across Belgium

On Wednesday 2nd August, a group of 60 young people from 15 European countries

will begin a bike tour across Belgium calling for nuclear disarmament.

The participants from Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy,

Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the UK,

will begin the bike ride at 9am on Wednesday 2nd August in the Market Square in

Ypres.

The bike ride will include commemorations of the atomic bombing of the Japanese

city of Hiroshima (on 6th August 1945) in Brussels and Mons.

The bike tour will end on 9th August with a nonviolent blockade of the NATO

nuclear weapon base at Kleine Brogel, to mark the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

The events take place in the context of the "Mayors For Peace" campaign for

worldwide nuclear disarmament by the year 2020.

The nonviolent blockade of Kleine Brogel has already received the support of

over 80 Belgian mayors, and members of parliament, as well as prominent members

of Belgian society. Amongst the supporters of the blockade are the mayor of

Hiroshima, and Jean-Luc Dehaene, Member of the European Parliament, and former

Belgian Prime Minister.

The events come ten years after the International Court of Justice in the Hague,

the highest legal body in the world, declared that the threat or use of nuclear

weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law. Last

year, the Belgian Senate and House of Representatives passed historic

resolutions calling for the withdrawal of the US nuclear weapons based at the

Belgian Airbase of Kleine Brogel, and from the other European countries where

they are stationed.

Photographs of the bike tour will be available, free of copyright, from our

website: http://www.motherearth.org

Press Appointments:

*** Start of bike tour, Wednesday 2nd August:

9:00, Market Square, Ypres

*** Arrival of bike tour in Brussels, Saturday 5th August:

16:00 (to be confirmed), Town Hall, Brussels

*** Hiroshima Commemoration, Sunday 6th August:

11:00 Hiroshima Commemoration at Parc Hibakusha, Plaine de Nimy (side street off

Brusselsesteenweg), Mons

12:00 Hiroshima Commemoration at SHAPE (NATO military headquarters), Casteau,

Mons

20:00 Japanese floating lanterns and Hiroshima Commemoration, at Vijvers van

Elsene/Etangs d'Ixelles, Place Flagey, Brussels

*** Nagasaki Commemoration and nonviolent blockade of Kleine Brogel Airbase,

Wednesday 9th August:

10:00, Main entrance Kleine Brogel Airbase (end of Onze-Lieve Vrouwelaan, side

street off Vrijheidslaan, 3390 Peer)

Press Contacts:

David Heller: +32 (0)472 342463

Pol D'Huyvetter: +32 (0)495 280259