Italian Mayors call for withdrawal US of nukes

June 26, 2007

The picture shows Mayors of municipalities around the Ghedi nuclear airforce base in northern Italy asking for the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons, on August 6th 2005 in front of the base. On June 26th 2007 five Mayors from municipalities surrounding Ghedi published an open-letter seeking withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from Italy.

In the Italian newspaper "Giornale di Brescia" five Italian Mayors wrote on June 26th 2007 to Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema and Defence Minister Arturo Parisi, to ask for information regarding the increasingly distrubing rumours claiming that nuclear weapons are stored in the military base of the Sixth Squadron of the Air Force.

The Mayors, Anna Guarneri of Ghedi, Giuliano Salomoni of  Castenedolo, Mario Benetti of Botticino, Alberto Bellotto of Borgosatollo, and Serafina Bandera of Montirone declared
"We are the Mayors of the municipalities surrounding the military airport at Ghedi," says the letter. "Information in national and local media, as well as US military documents that have been made available to us, suggest that there are nuclear weapons stocked in Ghedi. Also on behalf of our citizens, who are increasingly alarmed, we would like to be given more information. Not on the exact location of the bombs, for we know that these are matters on which military security demands secrecy, but sufficient information to guarantee the safety of our cities."

The letter further informs the Ministers that Ghedi, Montirone and Castenedolo are municipalities committed to working for peace; as such they are members of Mayors for Peace, an organization committed to the total abolition of the use of nuclear weapons (and the threat of use), and of all weapons of mass destruction. They therefore ask the Ministers to act in order to ensure that the Italian Government, in negotiations on reducing nuclear weapons, demand that the weapons stored in Ghedi be eliminated.