NATO headquarters in Belgium was the scene in July of several attempts to gather evidence of war crimes by the nuclear alliance. The "Nuclear Weapons Abolition Days Network" 1998 actions began at an International Citizens War Crimes Inspection Camp, pitched on the outskirts of Brussels, July 1-12. A delegation of 50 inspectors and supporters, including members of the European (MEPs) and Belgian Parliaments, arrived at NATO's door on the afternoon of July 8, the second anniversary of the International Court of Justice's Advisory Opinion condemning nuclear weapons.

Hoping to avoid a repeat of the 1997 Hiroshima Day action that had shut down their front gate and left a hole in their fence, NATO officials phoned the action camp the previous day, offering to meet with a delegation. After considerable negotiation and not without serious reservations, a team of five representatives, including the MEPs and Belgian MP, went in to meet for over an hour with four senior NATO officials. Unfriendly and tense, the NATO-spokespersons downplayed the legal arguments and refused to answer concrete questions. They told the Citizen Inspectors that they didn't have to comply with the opinion of the International Court of Justice, because it is not legally binding. The inspectors reminded the officials that the opinion is a clarification of existing and ratified international laws and conventions, which are binding on all 16 NATO-members.

Asked concrete questions regarding the number, yield, location, alarm status and precise targets of NATO nuclear weapons, the officials consistently replied "we can neither confirm nor deny .. " or "that's secret."

The delegation emerged to tell supporters that NATO did not provide sufficient evidence to verify that NATO nuclear policy complies with the law, and that other planned inspections should go ahead. A British member of the team described herself as "furious. That's the last time I waste an hour and a half of my life talking to war criminals."

Over the next hour, twelve other citizen war crimes inspectors made their way in small groups through the fence into the NATO compound. Police were on hand immediately to arrest the inspectors, who greeted them with questions about whether their superiors have informed them about the Nuremberg principles. The twelve were arrested and released later that day, and charges dropped.

Two days later, activists returned to NATO for surprise inspections. "Did the U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq always ask politely?" they asked. "We think not."

A five-member international team - one each from Belgium, Finland, Holland, the United Kingdom and the United States - cut through a back fence, scaled another, and soon found an open window into a vacant file room, perhaps a translator's office. After inspecting the documents at hand, the five walked out into the corridors of the building, clipboards in hand, and began asking personnel a series of prepared questions relating to employment with NATO, whether NATO had informed the employee of their Nuremberg obligations, whether they believe they could be held personally responsible for carrying out illegal orders, etc.

Eventually, security officers interrupted the questioning and arrested the five. Another team of four inspectors had also gained access to offices. They also were arrested, while conducting similar interviews for evidence of war crimes.

The surprise of the inspections and breach of NATO security reportedly caused great alarm. In addition to nine inspectors, three legal observers who stayed across the road from the base and the driver of a drop-off car were also arrested in the aftermath of the arrests inside.

All of those arrested were released by the end of the day, and returned to the action camp, where preparations were already underway for the July 12 start of a Walk for Nuclear Disarmament to the Faslane Trident base in Scotland and the Trident Ploughshares 2000 action camp.

For more information, contact the Nuclear Weapons Abolition Days Network, c/o For Mother Earth, Gewad 15, 9000 Gent, Belgium; email: nwad@motherearth.org