Press Releases & Updates 1998

About fifty TP2000 disarmers will return to the camp at Coulport next week to give the Clyde nuclear bases their full attention. Over the next 12 days there will a rich pattern of direct disarmament actions, public protests and significant court appearances.

On Tuesday 10th November six disarmers will appear at Helensburgh District Court. Among them will be Krista van Velzen from the Netherlands and Katri Silvonen from Finland who appear on charges relating to their famous swim across the Gareloch to within a few metres of a Trident submarine. Katri and Krista have been headline news on the Continent and they are available for interview from Saturday onwards.

Also appearing then will be Hanna Jarvinen from Finland, Hans Lammerant from Belgium along with UK activists Claire Fearnley and Margaret Bremner. Margaret , who is accused of malicious mischief after decorating her cell with messages of peace said: "One of my messages read: Stand up, make your choice, create a world without nuclear death. That sums it up for me. I work with women who have breast cancer and there is for me a vital link between that work, which is all about preserving and valuing life, and the work of challenging our country’s plans for murder."

There will be a photo opportunity outside the Court at Victoria Halls, Helensburgh at 9.30 a.m. on Tuesday 10th November when the focus will be on the "Real Criminals". Defendants will also be available for interview at this time.

On the same day a seven day disarmament camp begins, based in Peaton Wood near the Coulport nuclear base on Loch Long. The peak of the week’s activity will be at the weekend with the likelihood of a mass disarmament action on Sunday 15th. Watch our regular press briefings for more detail of these actions. Also on the Sunday, at 3.30 pm. at the Faslane North Gate Rev. Maxwelll Craig, the Scottish church leader, and Rev. Norman Shanks, leader of the Iona Community will conduct a service, celebrating the hope of freedom from institutionalised mass murder. Maxwell Craig said: " How long will it be before the dull spirits of our national leaders grasp the simple fact that we are not allowed to kill innocent people?"

On Saturday 14th November the TP2000 group called the Gareloch Horticulturalists will picket the Ministry of Defence building in Argyle Street, Glasgow, in protest against Britian’s continuing war crime. Photo opportunity at 10.a.m. at the main entrance to the Ministry of Defence building in Argyle Street.

Notes For Journalists

Trident Ploughshares 2000 (TP2000) is a part of the international nuclear disarmament movement. TP2000 activists have pledged to disarm the UK Trident nuclear weapons system by the year 2000 in a non-violent, open, peaceful, safe and fully accountable manner. At this time over 100 people have signed the pledge.

We believe that the use or threatened use of nuclear weapons is totally immoral and irresponsible and that the Trident system is illegal under international law. Our disarmament action is necessary since the UK government has to date shown no signs of any intention to dismantle the system. As citizens we have both a right and a duty to uphold international humanitarian law.

The UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system is based on 4 submarines (the fourth, HMS Vengeance was rolled out on September 19th) which carry between 12 and 16 missiles, each of which can deliver a number of 100 kiloton warheads to individual targets - mass destruction on an almost unimaginable level. These subs are based at Faslane, west of Glasgow, and armed at Coulport on Loch Long. Faslane and Coulport are just two of at least 39 Trident related sites in Britain which are the legitimate targets of our disarmament action.

In the last two millennia codes of conduct have been developed to deal with rights and wrongs in warfare, culminating in the Geneva Convention. These codes have developed key principles, such as the insistence that non-combatants should not be harmed, that the suffering of combatants should be minimised and that no form of warfare should be employed which presents a permanent threat to the natural environment. In July 1996 the International Court of Justice considered the application of these principles to nuclear weapons and gave its Advisory Opinion that " the use of such weapons is scarcely reconcilable (with the rules of humanitarian law)."

We are taking direct action against installations and equipment involved in the Trident system. By doing so we aim to inflict significant damage and disruption on these installations and when arrested we take full responsibility for our actions. Our defence in the courts is based on the primacy of international law. We do what we can to publicise our actions and the response of the authorities so that public awareness of the UK’s indefensible nuclear weapons policy is increased and more and more people either become disarmers themselves or actively support the movement in a whole variety of ways.

The first phase of our campaign was the 15-day camp at Coulport in August when direct actions led to 113 arrests. Among a number of breaches of base security activists were able to swim in on two different occasions to within metres of a sub before being picked up. There were activists present from 12 different countries, underlining international concern over the UK’s behaviour. In the trials that followed the challenge of international humanitarian law has been again and again presented. The defendants have argued for the imminence of the threat presented by Trident and for their right and duty to do all their power to prevent the war crime involved.

Printer friendly version

Home | Top