Plaid MEP Jill Evans and the party's President Dafydd Iwan will both speak at Monday's commemoration of the 1936 burning of the bombing school at Penyberth. The event will not only mark the events of 1936, but also highlight opposition to the privatisation of military training, in the context of the proposed military academy at St Athan.

Jill Evans, who represents the whole of Wales in the European Parliament, said that this question was not just about jobs, but about the kind of Wales we want:

"Wales is recognised for its traditions of peace and reconciliation. I want to see those traditions continue, and for us to become a driving force for peace in the world, a task for which we have the skills and the potential.

"Instead the British government would make us the centre of training for war, putting that training in the hands of multinational arms companies, and at the same time, some politicians continue to make vastly exaggerated claims about the number of jobs they say will be created. It is important that the facts are revealed.

"We are opposed to the privatisation of military training."

Dafydd Iwan said:

"The significance of the burning of the bombing school at Penyberth is still a powerful influence on my thinking. When one considers the immense destruction caused by wars and terrorism of all kinds in our world today, it is more evident than ever that we must pursue a more civilized way of settling the world's problems. And at a time when sustainability is a key concept, we must recognize that warfare and weapons of destruction are the very antithesis of sustainability.

"We must not allow Wales to become a major cog in the military machine, and there are very fundamental questions that must be asked about the Military Academy at St. Athan before we are drawn into something we will regret as a nation. The future we want for Wales is as a nation of peace, not of war, of international understanding, not of military confrontation."

Diwedd/Ends.

NOTES

Jill Evans MEP and Dafydd Iwan will join the Rev. Guto Prys ap Gwynfor to light a flame of peace at the memorial at Penyberth, near Pwllheli on Monday 8th September at 2pm. The event will commemorate the fire lit by Saunders Lewis, Rev. Lewis Valentine and DJ Williams to stop the building of a bombing school there in 1936.

The event is organised by the Cymdeithas y Cymod / Fellowship of Reconciliation in Wales, an international faith based peace movement.

Jill Evans MEP is Deputy President of Plaid Cymru and also chairs CND Cymru.