Peace activists block US military transport.

Sunday evening from 20h50 onwards, a group of peace activists, supported by the Forum for Peace Action (Forum voor Vredesactie), blocked a train with US military equipment in Antwerp harbour. This train is part of US military transports towards the Persian Gulf and Turkey, which get shipped in Antwerp.
With this action the peace activists want to resist the upcoming war against Iraq and the silent support given to the US military build-up by the Belgian government.

Since january military equipment from US troops based in Germany is shipped in Antwerp on a massive scale. The past week more than 5000 US soldiers based in Germany got their deployment order for the Persian Gulf. Another 2000
soldiers from Engineer Brigades are sent to Turkey to prepare the arrival of other troops. Part of their material gets shipped in Antwerp. These transports will continue till March, according to the US V Corps.

With this action the activists want to resist the upcoming war against Iraq and the silent support given to the US military build-up by the Belgian government. The Belgian government hides itself behind secret NATO-agreements
and sticks to the position that these are standard transports. These massive transports stand in sharp contrast with the Belgian position in NATO and
raises questions about its value. The Belgian position can be praised but seems only to be a political position without any consequence for the US military build-up, since the US can continue to use all Belgian logistical
facilities. In practice the US gains the same result and the Belgian government stays a silent partner.
Which opinion one has about NATO, it is clear that the US uses NATO for its own unilateral intervention policy. Membership of NATO means in practice the logistical support of unilateral US military policy. The Belgian governmant
makes the choice to let this happen, she can also make another choice.

Forum voor Vredesactie
Patriottenstraat 27
2600 Berchem
Tel: 03/281 68 39
Fax: 03/281 68 79
forum@vredesactie.be

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