United for Peace of Pierce County, WA - We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy.

An unusually determined group of protesters assailed NATO headquarters in Belgium on Saturday in an effort to call attention to an upcoming fundamental reform of the alliance at a meeting scheduled to be held Apr. 2-4, 2008, in Romania (which joined the alliance only in 2004, along with Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Bulgaria). -- The demonstrators complained that what was originally a Cold War alliance designed to protect Western Europe is now morphing into a tool of hegemonic U.S. foreign policy around the world. -- About 150 demonstrators were arrested at the protest in the Brussels suburb of Evere on Saturday, BBC News reported.[1] -- Xinhua said the protest was part of “a campaign called ‘NATO GAME OVER,’”[2] -- “The organization behind this campaign, Vredesactie, said about 500 people have been arrested,” the Chinese news agency said. -- Vredesactie said more than fifty activists successfully penetrated NATO headquarters, despite efforts of police to keep them out; a NATO spokesperson denied this. -- The protest was organized by “pacifist groups,” and Hans Lammerant, a spokesperson for the groups, said that “some 700 demonstrators from around 15 member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including France, Germany, and Greece,” AFP reported.[3] -- Reuters said that not only military action in Iraq and Afghanistan but also the use of nuclear weapons was an object of the protest.[4] -- "NATO has 350 U.S. nuclear weapons deployed in Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain, and Turkey. According to international humanitarian law these weapons are illegal,” said Lammerant. -- DPA emphasized a point left out of other mainstream media accounts: that the demonstrators were trying to provoke “a debate on the alliance's role in the world,” and quoted Lammerant as saying that “NATO is a relict [sic] of the Cold War. A fundamental reform of NATO is on the agenda [in Bucharest]. They want to present a new, strategic concept on the 60th anniversary of NATO in 2009.”[5] -- DPA reported that “huge numbers” of police were called out to protect NATO HQ. -- France 24 posted video of the anti-NATO protest. -- The San Diego Union Tribune, the Daily Mail (Charleston, WV), and an Austin, TX, TV station posted short pieces on the demonstrations, but they were ignored by most U.S. media sources. -- A promotional video (in Flemish) made before the protests can be seen here....

[PHOTO CAPTION: Police used water cannon to stop protesters trying to climb fences]

Police in Belgium have detained about 150 demonstrators as they tried to climb security fences outside NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Organizers of the protest said they wanted to draw attention to what they called NATO's role in promoting war.

Water cannon was used to dislodge those who tried to get over the fences, some using mats to cover the barbed wires.

Police were prepared for the protest and had cordoned off a wide security perimeter around the NATO buildings.

Organizers Bombspotting and Vredesactie (Action for Peace) said about 500 protesters took part in Saturday's demonstration in the suburb of Evere to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war.

BRUSSELS -- Hundreds of anti-war demonstrators were arrested on Saturday at NATO headquarters as many of the protesters tried to enter the compound, organizers of the protest said.

The protest took place on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War. The protest, under a campaign called "NATO GAME OVER," was held ten days before a NATO summit in Bucharest, capital of Romania.

The organization behind this campaign, Vredesactie, said about 500 people have been arrested. There was no confirmation from the police.

Vredesactie said more than 50 activists successfully got inside NATO headquarters despite a heavy police presence.

Police used water cannons to prevent protesters from gaining access to the compound in a suburb of Brussels.

The organization accused NATO of helping the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Without NATO the war in Iraq and Afghanistan would not be possible," said Vredesactie in a statement.

NATO has made European countries logistic hubs for the U.S. military. European soldiers are also fighting in Afghanistan, it said.

On the NATO summit, it said Europeans do not want to use war and military threats to solve conflicts, as their leaders do.

"Missile defense, nuclear weapons, new military bases, soldiers to Afghanistan, . . . the people do not want it. But governments do not listen to these wishes," the statement said.

BRUSSELS -- Hundreds of demonstrators from member countries of NATO laid siege to the alliance's headquarters on the outskirts of Brussels Saturday to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war.

Belgian police said they had briefly detained about 450 demonstrators in and around the headquarters located in the suburb of Evere.

Demonstrators were removed from the premises, identified, and later released, Belga news agency quoted police as saying.

Minor damage was reported near the NATO building, police said but added that no charges had been filed.

"The police force was huge and they didn't hesitate to use dogs, horses, pepper spray, clubs, and water cannon," Belga quoted one demonstrator as saying.

Belgian television showed police using powerful water jets to dislodge people trying to scale the high fencing around the NATO buildings.

A spokesman for the pacifist groups that organized the NATO demonstration, Hans Lammerant, earlier said police made "dozens of arrests" in and around the headquarters precincts.

Lammerant said that between 50 and 70 people had managed to get inside the enclosure out of some 700 demonstrators from around 15 member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including France, Germany, and Greece.

"The idea was to close NATO with seals or sticking-paper but the people who got inside were immediately arrested, along with dozens of others who were demonstrating outside," he said.

The anti-war demonstrators, responding to a call by Belgian groups Bombspotting and Vredeactie (Action for Peace), accuse the Atlantic alliance of being the instrument of U.S. policy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Athens, meanwhile, more than 1,000 people filled the center of the Greek capital to protest the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and to support a mixture of other causes.

The demonstration was called by trade unions, anti-war and other groups, including Palestinian and Pakistani immigrants.

As well as the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, they demanded a NATO-free Balkans and "liberty for Palestine" as they marched from the city center to the U.S. embassy, escorted by a strong force of police.

OVER 100 ANTI-WAR PROTESTERS ARRESTED AT NATO HQ
By Yvonne Bell and Darren Ennis

BRUSSELS -- Around 100 anti-war protesters were arrested trying to force their way into NATO's headquarters in Belgium on Saturday, police said.

Police in riot gear and on horses clashed with over 500 activists from across Europe -- opposed to military action in Iraq and Afghanistan and the use of nuclear weapons -- outside NATO's Brussels hub.

Water cannons were used to prevent most of the protesters from gaining entry to the large security compound situated on the outskirts of the Belgian capital and close to Brussels national airport.

At least one protester was taken to hospital with serious injuries after falling on barbed wire, a police spokeswoman said. "We have arrested over 100 and they are being taken to court to be dealt with swiftly."

"Demonstrations are a feature of democracy. All we hope for with any such protest is that it is done in a peaceful and safe manner," the official told Reuters.

NATO is a security and defense alliance of 26 countries from North America and Europe with forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Darfur.

Organizers of Saturday's "NATO Game Over" protest say without the military organization, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would not be possible. They also oppose the use of nuclear weapons.

"Today is close to the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq and we are protesting against NATO's involvement and in particular European countries which are allowing themselves to be used as military hubs," anti-war campaigner Hans Lammerant told Reuters.

"NATO has 350 U.S. nuclear weapons deployed in Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain and Turkey. According to international humanitarian law these weapons are illegal."

BRUSSELS -- Belgian police arrested nearly 500 demonstrators Saturday at NATO headquarters in Brussels as peace activists from 17 countries had tried to enter the grounds. A Belgian peace initiative had called the protest under the motto "NATO game over" to prompt a debate on the alliance's role in the world.

"NATO is a relict of the Cold War," said Hans Lammerant of the Belgian peace organization Vredesactie which has called for a reduction of military intervention forces in the run-up to the NATO summit in Bucharest.

"A fundamental reform of NATO is on the agenda there. They want to present a new, strategic concept on the 60th anniversary of NATO in 2009," he said, adding military expenditure should be lowered.

Huge numbers of police took up positions around NATO's headquarters early Saturday.

Police had been monitoring the situation from a helicopter and also used a water cannon to disperse demonstrators.

The peace activists had armed themselves with rugs in order to climb over the barbed wire fence uninjured.