60 civil weapon inspectors arrested at Volkel (the Netherlands)

(a report by the peace activists at Volkel, I only translated it)

Volkel, 30 maart 2003 - this afternoon around 60 people have been arrested on and near military airbase air base Volkel., among them were 5 journalists.

The arrests were made during an 'inspection by civilians' , looking for American nuclear weapons on the base. The civil inspection is one out of many initiatives for peace and against the war on Iraq in the Netherlands.

The action started with a peace vigil at the main gate. One minute of silence was held for all victims of the war in the past and future. After the vigil several representants from the peace movement as well as Socialist Party Member of Parliament Krista van Velzen gave speeches.

After this a die-in was held, showing the dreadfull effects of war. For extra effect an orange smoke bomb was ignited. Unfortunately undercover cops felt the need to use excessive violence against this. Three of them jumped the peace activist and immediately after that four mounted police charged through the crowd towards him, causing some turmoil.

After this incident, several people at the main gate and around the base went on the base, or attempted to. At this moment (sunday evening, around 18.00 local time) about 50 or 60 people are being held in custody,

Five journalists have been arrested and are still being detained with their material:
Cameraguy Huib Schoonhoven,
Soundman Andreas de Dieck,
WFA photographer Peter van de Oetelaar,
ARTE cameraman (from France) Fred Bak
and Sander van de Kerkhof of the local tv broadcaster Skyline tv.

Why this inspection?
One of the main reasons the United States gave to start a war on Iraq was the alleged and still not proven presence in that country of Weapons of Mass Destruction. The government of the Netherlands supports an attack on Iraq.

Iraq is demanded to give 100% openness about these weapons, as well as disarmament. Meanwhile there are American nuclear weapons in the Netherlands, on military airbase Volkel. The Dutch government refuses to give any information, let alone remove the weapons.

Disarmament must take place globally.

The inspection by civilians is one of many activities for peace and against the war on Iraq, that are taking place on many locations in the Netherlands.

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I copied the 4 photos taken at the action from http://indymedia.nl/nl/2003/03/10915.shtml.
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Update on Barabara Smedema (by me)
The famous movie of Barbara demolishing sattelite dishes related to the nuclear weapons on this same base has been removed from cnn, but you can still see it at :
(small)http://media.rtl.nl/media/actueel/rtlnieuws/20030209_1848-vernielingen_Real_narrowband_Normal.RM?mode=compact&title=via_http://www.indymedia.nl
(broadband)http://media.rtl.nl/media/actueel/rtlnieuws/20030209_1848-vernielingen_Real_Broadband_Normal.RM?mode=compact&title=via_http://www.indymedia.nl

Barbara has been led to court last friday (28/3). The charges were demolition, public violence in an organised group, and destruction of a building. The damage done is estimated at 500.000 Euro (1 euro used to be appr. 1 US dollar). Says the military police.
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