Press Releases & Updates 2009

Several of the defendants indicated that they believed some of the activities at the facility in West Berkshire, south-east England, over which there is a lack of transparency from the state, the court heard, would constitute preparations for and/or conspiracy to commit war crimes, which they felt they had a right and a duty to prevent.

The defendants, Barbara Dowling, from Glasgow, Jean Oliver, from Lanarkshire, David Polden, from London, Emma Sangster, also from London (all self-represented) and Renate Zauner from Switzerland (represented by Prof. Nicholas Grief) were facing the charge of “wilfully obstructing the highway without lawful authority or reasonable excuse”. They were among 33 people arrested during a peaceful mass blockade of the Aldermaston site that took place on 27 October 2008 (and had been announced well in advance) during the annual UN Disarmament Week. [1]

The court heard how, by lying down in or close to the access road to the Tadley Gate entrance to the base and linking arms using rigid plastic tubes - in one case incorporated inside a large teddy bear - the defendants believed they were acting to uphold international law and fulfil their moral duty to stop the development, deployment and use of indiscriminate nuclear weapons by preventing workers and contractors entering the site in their vehicles.

The first defendant, Barbara Dowling was sentenced on Wednesday (21 October) after changing her plea to guilty.

She said in her statement in mitigation:

“I lay down in the road using my body to nonviolently blockade the illegal, immoral work of the [Aldermaston] nuclear bomb factory. I was alive when Hiroshima was bombed; it happened in my lifetime: it’s personal. Now I weep. Guilty or not guilty here today, nothing will change: the work continues at AWE and I’ll just carry on.”

Describing Ms Dowling as “an extremely genuine and committed person,” District Judge Peter Crabtree handed her an 18-month conditional discharge and ordered her to pay £85 in costs. The remaining four defendants, all of whom pleaded not guilty, will have to return to court on Wednesday 12 November, at 2pm, to hear the judgment, all the evidence and submissions having been heard by Thursday (22 October).

As indicated by an expert report specially-prepared for the case by Dr. Nick Ritchie of the University of Bradford and submitted to the court as background evidence by counsel for Ms Zauner, AWE Aldermaston is used not only for research, development and maintenance of nuclear warheads for the UK Trident missile system, but also for the US nuclear weapons programme in collaboration with UK-based scientists. [2]

On 9 September this year, during the parliamentary recess, Quentin Davies, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, quietly announced to parliament via a brief written statement that £1 billion per year of taxpayers’ money would go to AWE until 2013. [3]

Renate Zauner said, “I recently discovered that my grandfather was a Nazi party official (cell leader) during the Second World War. Apparently he never broke a single national law. At the end of the war, six million people had died in the Holocaust. He might not have realised the consequences of his actions at the time, but I do: if I simply watch while crimes against humanity and war crimes are being prepared at Aldermaston and don’t act, then I am co-responsible for the preparation of these crimes and for the possible deaths of millions of people.”

Emma Sangster added, “A poll taken in July this year showed that the majority of people in Britain want all of this country’s nuclear weapons scrapped, rather than see Trident be replaced. Despite all the concern about nuclear proliferation and talk of a nuclear-free world, this Government is developing a new generation of nuclear weapons. I believe we all must do what we can to stop this process.” [4]

David Polden is a veteran anti-nuclear campaigner who said in court he had been arrested over 100 times and imprisoned 16 times for civil disobedience over a period of nearly 50 years. He said in evidence, “Nonviolent direct action is a good tool for drawing attention to views on nuclear weapons and their dangers”.

Jean Oliver, a member of the Iona religious community, added, “Nuclear weapons are theologically and morally indefensible, and I feel I have a clear duty to stop them.”

ENDS

Notes to editor:

1. Trident Ploughshares is a campaign initiated in 1998 to disarm Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system in a nonviolent, open, safe and accountable manner. Website: http://www.tridentploughshares.org

On 27 October 2008, three to four hundred campaigners joined the peaceful Big Blockade at AWE Aldermaston, organised by Trident Ploughshares and supported by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp(aign) and others. Of the dozens of people who peacefully blocked access to the base on that day, 33 were arrested. Other blockaders were not arrested, despite some remaining in position for up to five hours. More information: http://blockawe.blogspot.com

2. The latter is carried out under the auspices of the bilateral UK-US 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement (with subsequent revisions), which some critics claim breaches both countries’ legal obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

3. See: http://bit.ly/481R0E

4. ICM poll in the Guardian, 13 July 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/13/icm-poll-nuclear-weapons

5. More details and some key references can be found in the earlier press release pertaining to this trial, viewable at:

http://www.tridentploughshares.org/article1578

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