Press Releases & Updates 1998

In a final appeal to Tony Blair before the Trident Ploughshares (TP2000) action to disarm Trident begins on the 11th August, Angie Zelter, a Ploughshares veteran who with three other women was acquitted in 1996 after seriously damaging a Hawk Aircraft destined for repressive action against the people of East Timor, urged the Prime Minister to engage seriously with the legal, prudential and moral arguments for the dismantling of the UK’s weapons of mass destruction - the Trident nuclear system.

Dismissing the changes to the nuclear system announced in the Strategic Defence Review as tokenistic and likely to mislead the public, Zelter and the 8 other signatories to the letter of the 1st August point out that pre-arranged targets for the warheads are still ready to be used; that if these targets are land based any firing of the warheads would be an obvious breach of international and humanitarian law; that the very possession of such unspeakable weapons is poisoning us all morally.

Said Rachel Wenham of Aldermaston Women "We still hope that Mr. Blair will accept that this is serious politics and concerns the future of our children. We cannot begin to build a safe, prosperous and moral world community until we confront the biggest skeleton in our national cupboard, our nuclear crime."

With the letter is enclosed the names and addresses of the 97 activists who will begin the disarming work, underlining the openness and acceptance of accountability inherent in the action.

Meanwhile the Adomnan Group, an Edinburgh based cell of TP2000, has written to all the High Court Judges in the country, challenging them to face up to their judicial responsibility to consider what action they can take against the state when it is shown to be guilty of illegal behaviour and pointing out that if official channels are exhausted, the activists will be involved in "what would normally be classified as violations of the law ." and will begin the disarming work themselves.

Notes for Journalists:

1. The Ploughshares Movement began in North America in the 1970s as a confrontational but non-violent resistance to the arms race and nuclear weapons. Over the years its members have been involved in many disarmament actions, including the disabling of a Hawk aircraft bound for east Timor at the Aerospace plant for which four women were acquitted in 1996.

2. Trident Ploughshares 2000 began in 1997 and was publicly launched in May of this year. All 97 activists have pledged to prevent nuclear crime in a non-violent manner. The organisation and individual activists see themselves as fully and openly accountable for their actions. TP2000 has also been attempting to engage the government in dialogue, so far without success. If this continues the activists will initiate peaceful disarmament attempt from August 11 1998 until I January 2000 or until the government commit to immediately disarming Trident themselves, whichever is the soonest.

3. In July 1996 the International Court of Justice gave its Advisory Opinion, stating that "methods and means of warfare which would preclude any distinction between civilian and military targets, or which would result in unnecessary suffering to combatants, are prohibited. In view of the unique characteristics of nuclear weapons, ... the use of such weapons is scarcely reconcilable with such requirements." (ICJ July 1996)

4. Three Trident submarines are based at Faslane on the upper Clyde and a fourth is due to be launched in August this year. Each sub can deploy 96 nuclear warheads at a maximum range of 7,400 kilometers and the whole system is a major escalation from the previous Polaris system, capable of incinerating many millions of innocent civilians and polluting vast tracts of the planet. The annual cost to the British taxpayer is estimated at £1.5 billion.

5. Since coming to office in May 1997 the Labour government has consistently voted against general disarmament resolutions at the UN.

Peace Camp, Sint-Vincentiuspark, Evere, Brussels

Brussels, --- This afternoon, a delegation of fifty peace activist and Members of the European and Belgian Parliaments held a "citizens war crimes inspection" at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels. The mission of the inspection team was to gather prove that the Alliance is preparing nuclear war crimes. The inspectors asked to receive documents about NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group and its first strike nuclear deterrent.

The citizens war crimes inspection was organised to mark the second anniversary of the historic opinion of the International Court of Justice in The Hague on the illegality of nuclear weapons. On July 8, 1996 this highest court in the world ruled that threat (i.e. also including construction, storage and planning) and use of nuclear weapons are contrary to international law, and more specifically to humanitarian law and the rules of war. Because, among others, the Hague Conventions, Geneva Conventions, Genocide Convention and Nuremberg Principles also apply to nuclear weapons, it follows that threat or use of these weapons of mass destruction is illegal and a war crime.

The delegation -- consisting of MEP’s David Morris (UK- Labour, Socialist fraction) and Jaak Vandemeulebroucke (B- Volksunie, ARE-fraction); Belgian MP Hugo Van Dienderen (also representing the Green Group in the EP); and Eirlys Rhiannon and Eloi Glorieux of Nuclear Weapons Abolition Days -- had a meeting with 4 senior NATO officials lasting over an hour. Unfriendly and tense, the NATO spokespersons downplayed the legal arguments and refused to answer concrete questions. According to them, they didn’t have to comply with the opinion of the International Court of Justice, because it is not legally binding (what they "forgot" was that the opinion is a clarification of existing international laws and conventions as the above, which have been ratified - and are thus binding - by the vast majority of states - including all 16 NATO-members!). NATO apparantly also shares the goal of nuclear disarmament, but this can only be realised in the very long term .. For the forseeable future, nuclear weapons will remain fundamental to NATO’s defence posture. Asked concrete questions regarding the number, yield, location, alarm status and precise targets of NATO nuclear weapons, they consistently replied "we can neither confirm nor deny .. " or "that’s secret".

Can we imagine Iraqi officials replying to UN weapons inspectors like that? As long as the answer to the question: "when is a weapon of mass destruction not a weapon of mass destruction?" is: "When it’s one of ours!", how credible is international law? How to dissuade Iraq, India, Pakistan, ... if we don’t dare clean up our own doorstep? ALL nuclear weapons are genocidal, whoever they belong to!

Because the delegation’s inspection did not yield sufficient information, 12 other citizens war crimes inspectors made their way into the NATO HQ-compound through the fence in small groups. They were looking for data files or documents which would indicate if the Alliance is making illegal plans for the threat or use of nuclear weapons of mass destruction. Just three weeks ago, the NATO Nuclear Planning Group met in this HQ. We want to inspect if any nuclear war crimes were planned here.

"All twelve citizens war crimes inspectors were arrested by NATO security and handed over to the belgian police. They were released at 4:30 p.m. "Not these non-violent peace activists, but those that flout international law and prepare illegal nuclear war crimes should be arrested and prosecuted", declared Eloi Glorieux.

"It is hypocritical to threaten with a new Gulf War in Iraq for denial to be allowed to carry out inspection for suspected possession of weapons of mass-destruction, when you have yourself control over large numbers", said Pol D’Huyvetter another spokesperson for the inspection team.

Citizens Inspectors denied a visa by Belgian authorities

The citizens inspection team had delegates from Belgium, Britain, Finland, the Netherlands, Ukraine and the USA. Non violent peace activists from Belarus, Romania, Russia, Sri Lanka and Ukraine who planned to join the peace camp and citizens inspection were not granted a visa by the Belgian authorities, despite the fact that the invitations were supported by Members of both the Belgian and European Parliament, and a Sri Lankan Secretary of State. The Citizens Inspection is part of actions coordinated by an international peace camp set up near NATO HQ in Evere till July 12th.

Printer friendly version

Home | Top