International

SP Member of Parliament Krista van Velzen finds the holding of ‘Nuclear Strike’ exercises on the Wadden Islands unacceptable and is demanding that the government put an immediate end to co-operation with any such exercises. A US research group has found that by 1994 two operational bases offering training in the use of nuclear weapons already existed on the islands of Vlieland and Terschelling. The SP wants to know whether these bases remain operational and is demanding an end be put to any possibility of co-operation in exercises involving the use of weapons of mass destruction.

The Netherlands is signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and has a duty to work towards the speedy dismantling of nuclear weapons. The government may not cooperate in the relocation or receipt of such weapons. Ms Van Velzen said:

“I have argued for many years for the removal of the nuclear weapons stationed on the island of Volkel. There is no place in our country for weapons of mass destruction. The Netherlands must not play host to countries who want to train soldiers for their possible use.”

The US research group NDRC this week revealed that by at the latest 1994 two operational bases had been created, at Vliehors on on the island of Vlieland and Noordvaarder on Terschelling, where so-called ‘Nuclear Strike’ training was taking place. The report states further that the Netherlands had already, as long ago as the 1950s, secretly concluded treaties with the United States providing for the storage of nuclear warheads on our territory. One of these treaties, according to research done by an American journalist, went under the codename Toy Chest.