Press Releases & Updates 2001

Father Martin Newell and Susan van der Hidjen are due to appear at Peterborough Crown Court on Friday 5 January 2001 at 10am facing the following charges:

  Trespass
  Criminal Damage to four vehicles set at £27,000
  Criminal Damage to buildings set at £4,000

In the early hours of November 3rd 2000, Martin and Susan entered RAF Wittering in Cambridgeshire and disarmed the convoy truck being prepared to carry nuclear warheads to Faslane, Scotland for Trident nuclear submarines.

Both Martin and Susan are still in prison and are reported to be having regular visits and to be in good spirits.

It being the day before the Epiphany, three kings and other supporters will gather outside Peterborough cathedral at 9:30am on January 5 and proceed to the crown court for a peaceful demonstration at 10am. The Kings will be bearing gifts of life, love and peace as opposed to Trident’s gifts of death and destruction.

David Heller (24), a university lecturer from Hull who is currently working in Belgium with the For Mother Earth campaign, was one of ten activists who cut their way into the base on Wednesday 27th December. They were able to take photographs of the section of the base used by the US nuclear weapons personnel before being arrested. Also arrested was Mark Akkerman (20), a student from the Netherlands who is, like David Heller, a member of the Trident Ploughshares campaign. Mark has had a number of arrests in the UK for actions against the Trident bases on the Clyde.

Earlier the activists had gone to the local police to report a breach of the law by Netherlands government leaders - their involvement in a criminal conspiracy to commit genocide through the use of nuclear weapons. The police refused to take immediate action and the activists then saw it as their duty to undertake the crime prevention themselves. It is an open secret in the Netherlands that there are US nuclear weapons in the Volkel base. Over the years activists have collected documentary and visual evidence of this covert deployment.

David Heller said:

"They have accused the wrong people. They should have arrested the Prime Minister and Foreign minister of the Netherlands. I’m being deported because I am a threat to public order when the real threat is the nuclear weapons at Volkel."

Ironically, a Trident Ploughshares activist from the Netherlands is due to face trial at Dumbarton Sheriff Court next Thursday (4th January) for taking part in a blockade of Faslane naval base last February. In the papers calling her to court Marjan Willemsen (23), currently at Faslane Peace Camp, has been advised that if she is found guilty the court may recommend to the Home Secretary that she be deported.

Printer friendly version

Home | Top