Press Releases & Updates 1998

At the North Gate of the Faslane Naval Base where the submarines carrying Britain’s illegal Trident nuclear weapons are berthed and maintained, activists from Trident Ploughshares who have pledged to uphold international law by disarming the weapons system in a non-violent way took part in a mass action which saw the gate blockaded, the security fence cut places and 5 arrests, while activists from the permanent Peace Camp demonstrated at the base’s South Gate.

The police are present in great numbers. The small number of arrests may well be due to the fact that there have already been 86 in the last nine days, which is drawing nation-wide publicity to the determined action to uphold the law and leading to a whole series of trials in the subsequent months in which the primacy of international humanitarian law will be tested The police have instead deprived many of the activists of their legitimate disarmament tools, such as bolt cutters, hammers, hacksaws and chisels. The police blocked the Garelochhead to Helensburgh road outside the base.

After a half-hour concert by the internationally renowned early music quartet, the Venus Birds, the disarmers, inspired by Monday night’s foray in which two women and a man reached a submarine docking bay, set about the fence and attempted to carry out a citizens’ war crimes inspection. They are determined to expose the hypocrisy of the UK on the matter of war crimes. On the one hand the UK has taken the lead in setting up the International Criminal Court but at the same time it stubbornly refuses to accept the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice in July 1996 which ruled mass destruction systems such as Trident unlawful.

The blockade of the North Gate has already lasted an hour and a half and is continuing.

Many of the disarmers arrested for actions which took place this week and last week appear in court today, including, Katri, Rick and Krista who reached Docking Berth 12 on Monday night.

End of Press Briefing 12

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