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CND in the News
CND in the News: 25 April - 8 May 2006
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1 Helen and Sylvia, the new face of terrorism
The Independent , May 3, 2006
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MOR20060503&articleId=2376
Two grandmothers from Yorkshire face up to a year in prison after becoming
the first people to be arrested under the Government's latest anti-terror
legislation.
Helen John, 68, and Sylvia Boyes, 62, both veterans of the Greenham Common
protests 25 years ago, were arrested on Saturday after deliberately setting
out to highlight a change in the law which civil liberties groups say
will criminalise free speech and further undermine the right to peaceful
demonstration.
Under the little-noticed legislation, which came into effect last week,
protesters who breach any one of 10 military bases across Britain will
be treated as potential terrorists and face up to a year in jail or £5,000
fine. The protests are curtailed under the Home Secretary's Serious Organised
Crime and Police Act.
Campaigners expressed their outrage yesterday at Charles Clarke's new
law, which they say is yet another draconian attempt to crack down on
legitimate protest under the guise of the war on terror. In October last
year a protester in Whitehall was convicted for merely reading out the
names of British soldiers killed in Iraq. And at the Labour Party conference
in September the Government suffered severe embarrassment when Walter
Wolfgang, a veteran peace activist who survived the Nazis, was detained
for heckling Jack Straw.
Mrs John and Mrs Boyes, who have 10 grandchildren between them, were held
by Ministry of Defence police after walking 15ft across the sentry line
at the United States military base at Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire.
They were held for 12 hours before being released on police bail. They
will learn whether they are to face prosecution when they return to Harrogate
police station on 15 April.
"We thought this was a really important issue and we just had to
challenge it," said Mrs John, who was nominated for a Nobel Peace
Prize last year. Mrs Boyes, who was cleared by a jury at Manchester Crown
Court in 1999 of causing criminal damage to a British nuclear submarine,
said: " I am quite willing to break the law and prepared to be charged
and to go to prison. The Government thinks it can do whatever it wants
and that it has a passive public which accepts whatever it throws at it.
I find it very worrying."
The women, who have been arrested more than a dozen times between them,
went equipped with a hammer and a small pair of bolt cutters as well as
placards declaring their opposition to the new law. They had prepared
statements denouncing United States military policy and expressing their
support for the people of Diego Garcia and the Chagos Islands, who were
evicted from their homes to make way for US military bases.
As well as Menwith Hill, the sites covered under the new law include Fylingdales,
the early warning station on the North York Moors and the US air bases
at Mildenhall and Lakenheath in East Anglia. From next week the powers
will also cover three nuclear sites - Aldermaston in Berkshire, its research
facility at neighbouring Burghfield and the Devonport naval base at Plymouth.
The Government's decision suggests it is already preparing for the protests
that would follow the expected decision to replace Trident with a new
generation of nuclear weaponry.
Similar restrictions will be announced soon on selected non-military sites
such as royal palaces and government buildings. The Ministry of Defence
said the sites had been chosen because they had been the scene of regular
protests. A spokeswoman said: "Persistent activity by protesters
places them at risk of being mistaken for terrorists. It also unnecessarily
diverts police resources ... People will still be allowed to protest outside
sites. This legislation is about keeping police focused on the job they
are paid to do."
Kate Hudson, who chairs the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament,
said: " The Government has a responsibility to safeguard its citizens
- we would be the first to argue that. But there is a very fine line between
protecting people and introducing legislation that is an infringement
of civil liberties. In recent legislation the Government has got on the
wrong side of that fine line."
Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said: "When does a peaceful
protester become a trespasser? In a free society, when does he become
a criminal? In Britain in 2006, only one man - the Home Secretary - will
now decide instead of Parliament and the court. Just when our politicians
lament the demise of participatory democracy they increasingly criminalise
both free speech and protest."
Mrs John described the new law as a "kick in the teeth for the Magna
Carta" and said the need for opponents of the Government to take
direct action was greater now than ever. "We have seen two million
people standing in Hyde Park and Tony Blair had no compunction in ignoring
them. Even though there are huge numbers of people who oppose what the
Government is doing, the only effective protests have been where direct
action is taken. We have to demonstrate at the bases where the killing
capacity exists - we have to attack it at source. These are the eyes and
ears of the US war fighting machine and they are on our soil."
Before Mr Clarke's announcement military police only had the power to
escort protesters off the military sites and prosecute them for civil
trespass
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2 Plymouth CND banned from Lord Mayor's Day
Thursday 4 May 2006
The Plymouth branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
has been banned from taking any part in the forthcoming Lord Mayor’s
Day events in Plymouth.
Our Secretary, Shirley Law, had previously been told in a telephone conversation
that those groups which delivered the relevant paperwork on time (Plymouth
CND had done so) would have no difficulty in being accepted as taking
part in the Parade and, presumably, other events.
Ms Law then received a letter from the City Council’s Marketing
and Events Officer, a Ms Kay Judd.
The full text read:
‘This might be disappointing news but, with reference to your application
to be part of Lord Mayor’s Day, I have taken advice from other parties
and it is felt that this is not an appropriate event for the Plymouth
CND. Lord Mayor’s Day is a non-political and family fun day; therefore
we have to decline your entry.’
Plymouth CND would be interested to know who these ‘other parties’
were when this decision was made.
Plymouth CND would also be interested to know whether DML and/or the
Royal Navy, both of which have taken part in previous events, will be
allowed to take part while Plymouth CND are apparently banned from any
involvement.
One member said: ‘This is a disgraceful attempt by the City Council
to enact censorship of ‘inconvenient’ opinion by the back
door.’
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3 UK Christian groups to rally for peace and justice in the Holy Land
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_06053holy.shtml
Christian agencies plan to rally in central London later this month,
to call for a just peace in the Holy Land – which remains a site
of bitter struggle between Israelis and Palestinians. Pax Christi (the
international Catholic movement), the Christian Campaign for Nuclear
Disarmament and the Amos Trust will gather in Trafalgar Square
on Saturday 20 May. Marchers will meet at the Embankment at 12 noon.
The demonstration has been called in response to the news that Palestinians
are now on the brink of starvation and many people have already died as
a result of shortages of medicines - caused by the withdrawal of aid following
the election of Hamas.
Recently, Dov Weisglass, the Israeli prime minister's adviser, joked:
"It's like an appointment with a dietician. The Palestinians will
get a lot thinner, but won't die." But the church-sponsored Amos
Trust, whose supporters include singer Garth Hewitt, doesn’t appreciate
the joke. It points out that according to a January 2006 United Nations
report, 64% of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are living below
the poverty line.
In Gaza, 40% of children also suffer from malnutrition because of the
Israeli occupation. John Ging, director of UN operations there, says,
“This is the first time bread has been rationed. There's no sugar,
oil, milk, the basics.”
The Trust’s statement coincides with a report commissioned by the
BBC which concludes that the corporation’s coverage of the region
has been deficient, and could be accused of failing to highlight the plight
of the Palestinians and the true disparities of power and wealth between
the respective parties.
A UN report in September 2005 said that 60 Palestinian women had given
birth at Israeli checkpoints since 2000 and 36 of their babies died as
a result. Quite a number more have died since. Moreover, since September
2000, over 3,800 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army and
settlers, and over 29,000 injured – many more than have died on
the other side of the conflict, though the Christian organisations stress
that they deplore all killings and injustice, not least suicide attacks.
The Amos Trust is concerned that when Israel’s separation wall
is complete, it will annex East Jerusalem and almost half of the West
Bank, leaving the Palestinians imprisoned in a series of ghettos. Over
half of the Palestinian population were expelled from their homes in the
1947-49 war, and a second wave of refugees was created in 1967. Today,
two-thirds of Palestinians are refugees.
The Amos Trust is appealing for Israel to abide by international law,
to acknowledge Palestine's right to exist, to recognise the democratically
elected government of Palestine (just as it has calls to be recognised),
to end the illegal occupation, to remove settlers and to dismantle the
wall.
Anglican Bishop Riah, himself a Palestinian, has long argued that the
Holy Land will only become properly holy once more when both Israelis
and Palestinians recognise the need to live side-by-side in peace, and
when the three religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) commit to it
being “the land of the Holy One” rather than an exclusive
claim or property.
Similarly, Melkite priest, Israeli citizen and Palestinian Arab church
leader and philanthropist Elias Chacour says that peace and justice requires
that the two populations recognise each other in their historical woundedness
as “two wronged peoples”.
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