Press Releases & Updates 2000

Marlene Yeo, who has lived in Burton on the Wolds for over 30 years, and has been a campaigner against nuclear weapons for almost as long, was convicted in March of criminal damage at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, Berks. She and her three co-defendants from Trident Ploughshares 2000 were ordered to pay for the repair of fences surrounding the Establishment.

Marlene says, "I do not intend to pay my share of the repair costs. AWE Aldermaston manufactures the nuclear warheads which are used by the British Trident nuclear submarines, and which are so destructive as to be incompatible with international and British laws of warfare. They are also a constant danger to people and the environment because of the risk of accidents, (as recent File On Four and Panorama Programmes have shown). I and my co-defendants had three times asked for an interview with the management of the Atomic Weapons Establishment, in order to discuss these issues with them. When our requests for an interview were refused, we tried to make contact with the people working inside the establishment, and to do this, we had to cut some of the fences. As our action was done in order to prevent the threatened and real dangers of mass destruction, I believe I was justified in committing this damage."

The management of AWE said that they were only fulfilling the contract the government had given them. But, says Marlene, that sort of argument was discredited at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals.

The Nuremberg Principles state clearly that:
  acting under orders doesn’t relieve a person from responsibility,
  crimes against peace and against humanity are punishable as crimes under international law,
  preparations for a war in violation of international treaties are themselves a crime,
  as is complicity in the commission of such crimes.

Marlene says, "I am an ordinary British citizen, I exercise my vote and I pay taxes. I do not want to be accused of complicity with regard to nuclear mass killings."

Marlene will cut short her participation at the week’s Trident Ploughshares Aldermaston disarmament camp from 18-25 May in order to attend the court hearing. She hopes that the court will accept her reasons for not paying the sum owing. But if they don’t, she is prepared to go to prison. The fact that she has done this once before in 1986 proves that she is serious about it.

Several opponents of the Trident Nuclear system are expected to come to the court to give support to the defendant.

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