Press Releases & Updates 1998

Five people were arrested as they attempted to cut through the chain-link perimeter fence. They are part of the Trident Ploughshares 2000 campaign, which seeks to openly, accountably and nonviolently disarm the Trident Nuclear Weapons System [1]. A further disarmer was arrested after climbing through the hole in the fence that had been made by the others.

The six people arrested were: Sylvia Boyes of Mosley, Birmingham aged 55; Richard Lewis, aged 20 of Norwich; Hannah Griffin, aged 20 of Norwich; Mary Kelly of Burtonport, County Donegal, Ireland; Joy Mitchell of Berwick upon Tweed and Keith Herald Morrie, of Manchester. The campaigners come from a wide variety of backgrounds, ranging from a grandmother of four to university students. Most of those arrested carried with them hammers to hammer on some part of the Trident Nuclear Weapons System. A number of the activists hold Christian beliefs and are enacting the prophecy ‘They shall beat their swords into ploughshares’.

Sylvia Boyes said,

"It is particularly appropriate at this time to act against these obscene weapons because at this very moment the United Kingdom is threatening to bomb Iraq due to its alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction"

She added, "Weapons of mass destruction are illegal under international law." [2]

This disarmament action was undertaken as an attempt to uphold International law, which outlaws the use or threat to use nuclear weapons. The activists will be using the relevant international laws to defend their actions in court.

Notes

[1]The activists are part of the second wave of the Trident Ploughshares 2000 project (TP2000), and as such have pledged to safely, peacefully and accountably disarm the UK’s ‘Trident’ nuclear weapons system. This led to 112 arrests in the first wave of action in August. Over 50 activists taking part in the second wave of action and are camping near the nuclear weapons bases near Glasgow.

[2] The United Nations declared the decade 1990/2000 as the decade of international law.

[3] At 3.30 p.m. today there will be a religious service at the north gate of the Clyde Navel Base which will be given by Maxwell Craig, General Secretary of ACTS (Action Churches Together in Scotland) and Norman Shanks, Leader of the Iona Community (formerly Convenor of the Church of Scotland’s Church and Nation Committee). It will be followed by a blockade of the gate.

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