Belgium> 500 activists close NATO Â
[Editor’s Note: Below are articles from DeWereldMorgen and Le Monde and links to other articles. Note the translation is literal via Google Translate, and therefore a bit rough.]
by Keltoum Belorf   1 april 2012   http://w ww.dewereldmorgen.be/
Today, about 500 peace activists from more than ten European countries  are taking part in an action to shut down NATO headquarters in Evere, Brussels in a nonviolent intervention. When peace is at stake, nonviolent intervention is necessary. NATO is a select club of countries that globally wage war . . .
A 500-perform many peace activists today at the initiative of Peace Action a nonviolent action to NATO. Participants try violent areas of NATO to enter and will try to close the NATO headquarters. Let’s wish them the existence of NATO in question. Delegations from ten European countries participate in the action.
 The activists have a clear message to the Heads of State on May 20 and 21 converge at a NATO summit in Chicago: “we do not want a missile defense, no NATO troops in Libya or Afghanistan, no useless and dangerous nuclear weapons in our country. “
“Where peace is at stake, nonviolent intervention is indeed necessary. A military alliance like NATO, a select club of countries around the world waging war, which possesses nuclear weapons and is prepared to use them first, is a threat to world peace “, it sounds to Peace Action.
360 activists were detained administratively as they tried to enter the NATO terrain. They will again be released tonight. Most arrests took place on the grassy plain on the back of the NATO area. About 15 activists are really concerned about the fence.
At the main entrance of the NATO headquarters also claimed dozens of human action. They stayed behind the Frisian horsemen because they did not want to be arrested.
Take a look at the first images
Protesters try to “close” the NATO Headquarters
Le Monde.fr |01/04/2012 at 15:49 • Updated 01/04/2012 at 6:57 p.m.
By Jean-Pierre Stroobants
 Peace activists from a dozen countries have attempted, first Sunday in April, the “close” the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty ( NATO ) in Evere, a suburb of Brussels. Gathered around the headquarters of the Alliance, several hundred protesters coordinated by the Belgian group Alliance for Peace, hoping seal doors and windows of the vast building.
First gathered near the main entrance, they are then divided into small groups to try to cross the enclosure. Singing and shouting slogans, they quickly clashed with many policemen who, in the middle of the afternoon, had already handcuffed and arrested 483 people, according to Police .
“Civil Disobedience”
For the protesters, NATO “is a real danger to world peace” . Their action of “civil disobedience” entitled “NATO Game Over” was especially the missile defense plan, an American project designed to ensure the protection of territory and populations of Europe against a possible threat to the Middle East. The protesters also criticized the wars in Afghanistanand recently in Libya , and the maintenance of some 200 nuclear weapons in five member states of the Alliance, including Belgium .
A French delegation heard protest especially against the modernization of the arsenal of nuclear , missiles and M51 ASMP / A and “taboo”surrounding the more general question of nuclear weapons.
Organized a few weeks before the summit that NATO should take in Chicago on 20 and 21 May next, this action is not the first of its kind. In 2008, peace activists wanted to protest against the war in Iraq , begun five years earlier. In 2009, they organized an action to mark the 60th anniversary of NATO. In 2010, it is the base of Kleine Brogel , in Belgian Limburg, harboring nuclear weapons, which was targeted. Each time, police made numerous arrests.
Thanks to Timothee Redkitten Genot for the information and links.
press release from the organizers (English):
http://vredesactie.be/article.php?id=764
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 La Libre Belgique (in French)
http://www.lalibre.be/actu/belgique/article/729766/483-pacifistes-interpelles-en-tentant-de-forcer-les-portes-de-l-otan.htmlLes manifestants, pour la plupart des jeunes d’une vingtaine d’années au look “b…See Moreabout an hour ago · Like -
Timothée Redkitten Génot in Le Soir (in French)
http://www.lesoir.be/actualite/belgique/2012-04-01/483-pacifistes-interpelles-en-tentant-de-forcer-les-portes-de-l-otan-906290.php
483 pacifistes interpellés en tentant de forcer les portes de l’Otan
www.lesoir.be
Plusieurs centaines de militants anti-Otan ont tenté sans succès dimanche de pén…See More