The historic links between Wales and Flanders will be renewed again next week with the visit of the Flemish Peace Institute to Wales. On 23rd February the Institute's President Nelly Maes and Director Tomas Baum will give evidence to the National Assembly in support of a 1,500 name petition calling for a Welsh Peace Institute. From Cardiff they will travel to Carmarthen, Aberystwyth and Bangor to talk about their work.

Many organisations and individuals, including CND Cymru, have come together in a broad cross-section of Welsh society to request the Assembly look at the potential for a similar body in Wales. A Welsh Peace Institute would advise and inform the Assembly on policies relating to peace, with its work based on independent academic research and overseen by a scientific panel.

The Flemish Peace Institute was set up in 2004. It looks at the implications of the Parliament's policies and actions on peace and justice - in society as well as on a national and international level.

Chair of CND Cymru Jill Evans MEP said:

"In the past Wales and Flanders have been linked by the tragedy of war and in our desire for peace. It is this link that we are building on today. I am confident that we will get support from all parties and all sectors of society. In the same way as the commitment to sustainable development has steered the Assembly's work, a Peace Institute would make the Assembly Members aware of the real affect that their decisions and policies would have on Wales and on the world. Flanders has been an inspiration to us but it is only one of many such institutes throughout the world. I know the Welsh Peace Institute has a place among them."

Thousands of young Welsh men were killed in Flanders in the First World War, including Eisteddfod winning poet Hedd Wyn from Trawsfynydd. The chair he won posthumously at the 1917 National Eisteddfod was made by a Flemish carpenter, Eugeen Vanfleteren. Hedd Wyn is not only commemorated in Wales but also in Flanders where a slate plaque inscribed in Welsh, Flemish and English has been erected close to the point where he was fatally wounded.

Diwedd/Ends.