A reader of this site wrote the following text on September 17, 2002, in relation to the belgium UFO flap of 1989-90.
Note: my publication of this text does not imply that I endorse or reject the ideas in it.
September 17, 2002.
I live in the Verviers area, the geographical center of this wave, I confirm the thousands of witnesses. Several people I know saw these triangles, sometimes from very close (just at the top of the houses).
For those who were interested in the phenomenon, the atmosphere was exceptional. I remember going to the plate of Hautes Fagnes, after an annoucnement on a local radio. Unfortunately I arrived too late for the sighting; but there was more than one hundred people and the excitation was indescribable: 2 crafts had flown around a good half an hour above the Gilleppe lake. The whole had ended in the appearance - disappearance of an enormous orange sphere. This case is reported in the first book on the wave by the SOBEPS.
What astonished me for all this period, was the differences in the reaction in the population. About everybody knew somebody who had witnessed the phenomenon. Everyone bathed in full mystery and the press did not say anything at large.
Certain people were curious, others couldn't care less; but there were enough people who were obviously frightened. They threw themselves at every bit of newspaper article that dedramatized the events so they they could laugh at the idiots who believed in the "little green men."
These people had really the jitter and verbally attacked all those who raised questions. The debunkers were numerous, they were not the Belgian army nor the CIA, they were Mister Average. I remember that scouts had made a fireworks and had been disguizing as Martians, a newspaper had made an article about it, what a relief, all was explained.
It is difficult to draw up a standard portrait of this type of panic-fearers; but if they have a scientific formation, they believed they were automatically obliged to protect correct thinking from any worrying drift.
It is in that spirit that one can understand reactions by Marc Hallet and some scientists of the University of Liege (see the article on this site: anti Belgian vagueness).
