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| Washington,
March 5, 2001 - Greenpeace activists will greet Denmark's foreign minister
Mogens Lykketoft when he arrives at the U.S. State Department Monday afternoon
for his first meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell. Activists
wearing "Stop Star Wars" t-shirts will unfurl banners and display placards,
encouraging Mr. Lykketoft to reject administration requests to upgrade
early warning radar facilities at the U.S. Air Force Base at Thule (Pituffik)
in Greenland. "Greenpeace urges the Danish government to continue with its strong advocacy of nuclear disarmament by withholding both political and material support for Star Wars, a program that will ignite a new nuclear arms race," said Greenpeace Nordic spokesperson Dan Hindsgaul in Copenhagen. Under Greenland's 1979 Home Rule agreement, the Danish government sets defense and foreign policy issues for Greenland. Without the radar facility in Thule (Pituffik) the Star Wars system will not be able to provide advance warning of missile launches from the central part of Russia. According to news reports negotiations between the Danish and the United States are already underway. "Danish Foreign Minister Lykketoft should give a clear message to Secretary Powell today that Denmark will never support the Star Wars program. If Denmark does not take a stance against Star Wars it will be supporting a policy that will destroy all existing arms control and disarmament agreements, something no nation should be advocating or supporting," said Greenpeace International Disarmament Campaigner William Peden at the State Department. Greenpeace is actively campaigning against Star Wars in Denmark as well as Britain where another radar facility essential to the Star Wars program is located. In Denmark, Mr. Lykketoft has already expressed concern that Star Wars may destabilize relations with China. In Greenland, opposition to Star Wars is pervasive with the Greenland Home Rule government adopting an extremely sceptical position. Meanwhile in the South Pacific, the Greenpeace ship SV Rainbow Warrior continues its voyage to the site of the next Star Wars test, scheduled sometime before the end of June. The Rainbow Warrior will arrive at the Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands to protest the Star Wars program in less than three weeks time. It is from Kwajalein that the system's "kill vehicle" will be fired. |
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