Time to Go! Belgian campaign against nuclear weapons

Press statement , 14 October 2013

Belgian former prime ministers and a former Secretary General of the NATO support campaign against nuclear weapons.

'Time to Go!' is the name of the campaign of the Belgian peace movement against the American nuclear weapons stationed in Belgium. On Sunday 20 October 2013 (from 2 until 6 p.m.) the peace movement organizes a national demonstration for nuclear disarmament in the Belgian capital Brussels (Jubelpark- Cinquantenaire ). There will be speeches, entertainment for children and concerts of Jaune Toujours, James Deano en Helmut Lotti.

http://www.timetogo.be

This campaign can count on the support of two former Belgian prime ministers, Guy Verhofstadt (open-VLD) and Jean-Luc Dehaene (CD&V), and former NATO Secretary General Willy Claes (SP-a). In a video-message these political personalities explicitly call for the removal of the nuclear weapons from Belgium. You can find their plea on www.timetogo.be or through this direct link.

“The removal of the American nuclear weapons from [the military base of] Kleine Brogel is an important first step towards a world without nuclear weapons. It's time for them to disappear from Belgium”.

“We are asking for a Belgium without nuclear weapons. It's 'time to go!'”

“The continued presence of nuclear weapons is contrary to the Non Proliferation Treaty”.

Why this campaign?

For 50 years there have been nuclear weapons in our country. These weapons are useless, expensive and dangerous. De majority of the Belgian population wants them out. Our government committed itself to work on a world without nuclear weapons, but tangible progress remains to be made.

There is broad public support for the removal of the nuclear weapons from Belgium. The list of organizations who join the campaign keeps on growing. Over a hundred personalities from the academic, cultural, political, trade union and socio-cultural sectors already support our demand for the removal of nuclear weapons from Kleine Brogel. This is the complete list. Just as the former Belgian prime ministers and the former NATO Secretary General, they are concerned about the lack of policies that might lead to a world without nuclear weapons.

In it's governmental agreement of 2011 the current Belgian leadership promised “to promote and support international initiatives for disarmament, including nuclear disarmamant”. To this day this intention has not been fulfilled. Will our Belgian representatives within the General Assembly of the United Nations continue to vote against a proposal to start negotiations on a UN-treaty against nuclear weapons? Only last week it was revealed that the Belgian law doesn't even prohibit investments in nuclear weapons!

This is why we urge the Belgian government to start working on nuclear disarmament, starting with the removal of the circa 20 American B-61 bombs (tactical nuclear weapons) that are currently stationed in Kleine Brogel.

Contact details Time to Go:

• (NL and ENG) Pieter Teirlinck, Vrede vzw, 0032 474 895 625, Pieter@vrede.be
• (NL) Annemarie Gielen, Pax Christi Vlaanderen, 0032 485 545 958, annemarie.gielen@paxchristi.be
• (FR) Samuel Legros, CNAPD, 0032 264 052 62 samuel.legros@cnapd.be