Sixteen activists, including Members of European
Parliament, arrested at air base in Belgium where U.S. nuclear weapons are
stored
Posted on February 23, 2019
Agir
pour la Paix photo
Three
Green Party politicians from Luxembourg, England
and France were arrested with four Agir pour la Paix activists on February
20 in Belgium after climbing a fence to enter a military base where U.S.
nuclear weapons are stored. After entering the Kleine Brogel base, they blocked
the runway of F-16 fighter jets. The Members of European Parliament – Molly
Scott Cato, Tilly Metz and Mich ele Rivasi – held a banner which read, “Europe
Free of Nuclear Weapons”. The group was soon detained and taken into custody.
Nine supporters standing
outside the base were also arrested, and authorities erased photos and videos
from their cameras and phones.
MEP Scott Cato said before
the protest, “Our action is intended to challenge EU countries to remove U.S.
nuclear weapons from European soil. Each B61 bomb is 23 times more powerful
than the bomb that devastated Hiroshima. These apocalyptic weapons should find
no home in Europe. We demand that Europe’s nuclear nations immediately sign up
to the landmark global Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and begin
the process of decommissioning their nuclear arsenals.”
For more information, visit
the Agir pour la Paix website here.
xxx
from Cornwall Live -- https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/cornwall-devon-european-mp-molly-2564421?fbclid=IwAR389sOWIvk4axWGovsBM3OZlGqFJi-BOr99z0Z8QvrQhEZjiUpK6odAisY
Cornwall and Devon European MP Molly Scott
Cato arrested after breaking into US air base in Belgium
She is currently being held and questioned in a Belgian police
station
February 20, 2019
Cornwall and Devon’s member of the European Parliament has been
arrested after breaking into a military airbase during a protest against
nuclear weapons.
Molly Scott Cato, who is the Green Party’s current MEP for the
South West, is one of three MEPs currently being held and questioned in a
Belgian police station.
The MEPs – Cato, Michèle Rivasi and Tilly Metz – unfurled a
banner on a runway for F-16 fighter jets at the Kleine Brogel base in the east
of Belgium, calling for a nuclear-free Europe, before being taken into custody.
The group included a number of Belgian peace activists who
scaled the wall of the base and blocked the runway.
Ms Cato, of Bristol, said they were protesting against the
stockpiling of American B61 nuclear bombs.
The banner the group unfurled on the runway read: “Europe Free
of Nuclear weapons.”
The three MEPs are currently
being held in a local police station and being questioned. They are likely to
be released later today (February 20).
The direct action protest follows the US withdrawal from the
intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) treaty earlier this month.
About 150 US nuclear weapons are thought to be scattered across
Europe in Belgium, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, compared with more than
7,000 at the peak of the cold war.
But campaigners fear this number could rapidly rise in any new
arms race, and say each B61 has an explosive yield of up to 340 kilotons, 23
times more powerful than the bomb that devastated Hiroshima.
Ahead of the protest, Ms Cato said: “Our action is intended to
challenge EU countries to remove US nuclear weapons from European soil. Each
B61 bomb is 23 times more powerful than the bomb that devastated Hiroshima.
“These apocalyptic weapons should find no home in Europe.
“We demand that Europe’s nuclear nations immediately sign up to
the landmark global Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and begin
the process of decommissioning their nuclear arsenals.
“Nuclear weapons are obsolete in an era of asymmetric warfare
and cyber warfare and have no placed in a European defence policy for the 21st
century. Britain and France have ignored their obligations under the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons for far too long.”
Green co-leader Sian Berry backed the protest saying: “We stand
in full solidarity with our brilliant MEP Molly and her Green colleagues who
have been arrested for taking a stand against nuclear weapons.
“These bombs have the potential to kill millions of people. They
make us less safe, are obsolete in modern warfare and are a colossal waste of
money.
“It is only right all US nuclear weapons are removed from
Europe. Greens are never afraid to put their bodies on the line for what is
right.
“These Green MEPs will be found on the right side of history for
the principled actions they have taken.”
xxx
from The Independent --
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/nuclear-bombs-protest-arrest-us-weapons-brussels-military-base-a8791611.html?fbclid=IwAR1d4YsKS_HVgqVvy5jCWiZALzzEMWEerMHBRBXGlkm90RcftyikkWCyBJ8
I was arrested for protesting
against US nukes in Brussels – this is why I chose to take a stand
If you believe that multilateral disarmament is the best
approach – as many of our politicians claim to – then you do at least need to
act on that belief
by Molly Scott Cato
February
22, 2019
It’s
not every day you find yourself lying on a freezing military runway at 7
o’clock in the morning. I don’t take breaking the law lightly, so why did we
decide to climb a three-metre barbed-wire fence to break into the Kleine Brogel
Air Base in Belgium where the country stores US bombs?
There
are 15,000 nuclear bombs still in circulation in the world and about 20 nuclear
bombs are still present at the Kleine Brogel military base. The UK’s own
arsenal is an estimated 215 nuclear warheads, each of which is far more deadly
than the first nuclear bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.
Whilst
figures will not muster much emotional response from many of us, perhaps the
human cost of nuclear warfare will. This is a quote from Fujio Torikoshi, 86, who
survived Hiroshima:
“I
was told that I had until about age 20 to live. Yet here I am seven decades
later, aged 86. All I want to do is forget, but the prominent keloid scar on my
neck is a daily reminder of the atomic bomb. We cannot continue to sacrifice
precious lives to warfare. All I can do is pray – earnestly, relentlessly – for
world peace.”
I
have been a peace activist since I joined the Campaign for Nuclear
Disarmament at the age of 16 and was inspired by the Greenham
Common Women’s Peace Camp which was close to my home and
which I visited as a teenager. My reasons for supporting unilateral nuclear
disarmament have always been consistent: I find it fundamentally unethical for
any state to hold hideously destructive weapons and threaten to use them merely
to reinforce their power in the world.
But
even if you believe that multilateral disarmament is the best approach – as
many of our politicians claim to – then you do at least need to act on that
belief. The European Parliament passed a motion in October 2016 in support of
the UN-sponsored Treaty on the
Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which has already been signed by EU
member Austria and 20 other countries, while 50 more are on their way to
signing. This is multilateral disarmament in action, supported by a campaign
that was rewarded with
the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. So why aren’t our politicians ensuring that the UK
is signed up? Why is there so little debate about the Treaty that most British
people have never even heard of it?
Aside
from the deeply unethical nature of a nuclear security policy, the big world
powers are behind the times. The modern-day threats come from asymmetric and
cyber warfare for which nuclear weapons have no relevance. With Russian attempts to destabilise our democracy and four people I
represent in the South West poisoned with
nerve agent by Russian agents – one of whom sadly died – it is clear that our
so-called defence policy is wholly misguided. So it has never been more urgent
to review our approach to defence policy. The decision by president Trump to
withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, risking a new arms
race, just adds to the urgency.
The
real debate we hope to provoke through this action at the air base is about
what a genuine 21st century security policy would look like. A positive
contribution to this debate is already being made by Rethinking Security, a network of
organisations, academics and activists working together for security based on
justice, cooperation and sustainability. They are asking what really makes us
safe in the world, and how we can counter the power of the arms trade to ensure
that we spend as much money on peace-building as on buying weapons.
The
ludicrous posturing of
our defence secretary Gavin Williamson, with his suggestions about establishing
new military bases for Global Britain in the Caribbean and the Far East is
designed to shore up his position in his own party rather than providing peace
and security for the country. In a democracy it is our right to debate how our
taxes are spent to ensure our safety and to underpin peace in the world.
If
our action at the base this week has helped to focus attention on the real
possibility of nuclear disarmament and a defence policy focusing on genuine
security, then the cold and uncomfortable morning I spent there was well worth
it.
Molly Scott Cato is Green MEP for the South West of England.
xxx
From Newsweek --
https://www.newsweek.com/nuclear-weapons-air-base-europe-belgium-green-politicians-disarmament-protest-1336908?fbclid=IwAR1uSsLZAmi78mhbc-MDD816kD0kB93gJhy0GtUB2AeUYtASVdy4l7a1Ldo
EU Politicians Break Into Air Base Holding
American Nuclear Bombs to Protest Weapons Stockpiling
By David Brennan
February 20, 2019
Three European lawmakers were arrested after they broke into an
air base in Belgium to protest the stockpiling of American nuclear weapons
there.
The
three politicians—Molly Scott Cato of the U.K., Michele Rivasi of France
and Tilly Metz of Luxembourg, all members of the European Parliament (MEPs)
representing green parties—broke into the Kleine Brogel base in eastern Belgium
on Wednesday and unfurled a banner on a runway used by F-16 fighter jets, The Guardian reported.
The three had been protesting the base’s stockpiling of American
B61 nuclear bombs, of which there were believed to be between 10 and 20 at the
facility, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative. All were detained on the
runway.
Another 12 activists—including a fourth Green MEP Thomas Waitz
from Austria—were arrested at a concurrent demonstration outside the base, the
newspaper said. The other 12 were members of the Belgian peace group Agir Pour
la Paix—Act for Peace. Several of those detained had tried to climb over the
fence surrounding the dual-runway base.
Scott
Cato, who represents Southeast England, told The Guardian that the action was “a
balance of risks and purposes.” She added that the “potential end of the world”
puts personal safety into perspective.
She tweeted a picture of the protest alongside her two fellow
MEPs and another woman. Their banner read: “Europe Free of Nuclear Weapons.”
“Nuclear
weapons offer no solution in this era and no rationale for defending the people
in the southwest who I represent. One of whom died this year because of a
Russian secret forces attack,” she continued, referring to a nerve agent attack on
a former Soviet agent in the city of Salisbury in March 2018.
A local woman, Dawn Sturgess, later died after coming into
contact with a discarded container authorities believe Russian agents used to
transport the deadly toxin. “How are nuclear weapons supposed to help Dawn
Sturgess?” Scott Cato asked.
There are believed to be around 150 American nuclear weapons
spread across six NATO nations—Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and
Turkey—as part of the alliance’s strategy of European defense.
Though this is far diminished from a Cold War arsenal of
approximately 7,000 warheads, campaigners say the continued presence of nuclear
arms could make the outbreak of a devastating war more likely.
Rivasi said Tuesday, “We are demanding the withdrawal of nuclear
bombs at Kleine Brogel and also from Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. We
urge all EU member states to sign and ratify the treaty prohibiting nuclear
weapons. Our first objective is a Europe without nuclear arms.”
In a
statement sent to Newsweek, the
U.K.-based Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament voiced its support for Wednesday’s
action. CND General Secretary Kate Hudson said, “U.S. nuclear weapons
have no place in Europe—this isn’t a battle-ground for a nuclear war between
world powers.”
Referring
to President Donald Trump’s recent decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Cold
War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty that banned short- and medium-range missiles,
Hudson warned, “There is a real danger we could see the return of U.S. nuclear
missiles to British soil as well as more nuclear missiles across Europe.”
“We are in desperate need for a new era of diplomacy,” Hudson
added. “Our country is in a strong position to demonstrate how the nuclear
states can work together to reduce and abolish nuclear weapons.”
“The alternative is to sit
back while the U.S. president tears up all restraints on nuclear weapons and
rapidly moves the world closer to nuclear war.”
xxx
from The Guardian
-- https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/20/green-meps-occupy-belgian-f-16-runway-in-anti-nuclear-protest?fbclid=IwAR02KdaqIzfswDuNHQAuDZNNTUPAN7tdoBixb4lO3hggVFhRKx80HE2ZPu8
Green MEPs
held after anti-nuclear protest at Belgian military base
UK’s Molly Scott Cato among those held after action over
stockpiling of US nuclear bombs
Three Green MEPs – including one from the UK – have been
arrested after breaking into a Belgian military airbase to protest against its
stockpiling of American B61 nuclear bombs.
The
MEPs – Molly Scott Cato, Michèle Rivasi and Tilly Metz – unfurled a banner on a
runway for F-16 fighter jets at the Kleine Brogel base in the east of the
country calling for a nuclear-free Europe, before being taken into custody.
Another
Green MEP, Thomas Waitz, was arrested in a demonstration outside the base,
along with 11 other activists from the Belgian peace group Agir pour la Paix (Act for Peace), three
of whom also scaled a 3.5-metre fence to get into the base.
The
direct action protest follows the US withdrawal from
the intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) treaty earlier this month.
About 150 US nuclear weapons are
thought to be scattered across Europe in Belgium, Germany, Italy and the
Netherlands, compared with more than 7,000 at
the peak of the cold war.
But
campaigners fear this number could rapidly rise in any new arms race, and say
each B61 has an explosive yield of up to 340 kilotons, 23
times more powerful than the bomb that devastated Hiroshima.
On Tuesday, Scott Cato, the MEP for South West England, told the
Guardian that the protest would be “a balance of risks and purposes”.
She said: “When you’re talking about the potential end of the
world, your own personal safety is put into perspective – and we are
talking about weapons that could kill millions of people.”
“Nuclear weapons offer no solution in this era and no rationale
for defending the people in the south-west who I represent, one of whom died
this year because of a Russian secret forces attack. How are nuclear weapons
supposed to help Dawn Sturgess?” she said, referring to the woman police
believe was killed by novichok in Amesbury, Wiltshire last year.
MEPs in Brussels enjoy some immunity from prosecution but it is
unclear if this would cover state security laws, which carry potential
five-year prison sentences.
Michèle
Rivasi, the vice-chair of the Green party in the European
parliamentsaid on Tuesday that: ““We are demanding the withdrawal of nuclear
bombs at Kleine Brogel and also from Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. We
urge all EU member states to sign and ratify the treaty prohibiting nuclear
weapons. Our first objective is a Europe without nuclear arms.”.”
Only
21 nations have ratified a 2017 UN treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons.
Of the EU countries, only Austria has signed up, although Ireland may soon
follow.
The
nuclear shadow over Europe has loomed large across Europe in the last year,
after Russia’s deployment of Iskander missiles in
Kaliningrad, Germany’s exploration of nuclearisation and
France’s flexing of its nuclear muscle, as
Brexit approaches.
Green
party sources say Wednesday’s action was, in part, an effort to set the
political agenda before elections in Belgium – where the Greens top opinion polls –
and across northern Europe, where they are riding high.
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