Five activists walk into Faslane nuclear weapons base

Five activists walk straight into Faslane nuclear weapons base
On August 17th five Trident Ploughshares peace activists walked unchallenged straight into Faslane naval base in Scotland, the home of Britain’s nuclear-armed Trident submarines, making a mockery of security for Britain’s “strategic nuclear deterrent.”

All five arrestees were released at around 9pm on Monday evening (17 August) and charged with criminal trespass under the Serious Organised Crime and Police (SOCPA) Act 2005 s.128 and under the Ministry of Defence byelaws (entry to the base without authority). A report is being sent to the Procurator Fiscal who will decide whether or not to prosecute.

They released the following statement:

Dear Friends at Faslane,
A group of us from Trident Ploughshares have entered the base today to call for the process of disarmament of Trident nuclear weapons to begin. We are here to remind all concerned that the UK government, as signatory to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty undertook more than 40 years ago to complete the disarmament of its nuclear weapons. The continuing deployment of Trident seriously threatens global security and peace, encouraging further proliferation.

In 2009 Judge Bedjaoui, President of the International Court of Justice, gave an opinion on “the legality of a nuclear weapons system that deploys over 100 nuclear warheads with an approximate yield of 100 kilotons per warhead.” He stated: “Bearing in mind that warheads of this size constitute around eight times the explosive power of the bomb that flattened Hiroshima ... and killed over 100,000 civilians, it follows that the use of even a single such warhead in any circumstance, whether a first or second use and whether intended to be targeted against civilian populations or military objectives, would inevitably violate the prohibitions on the infliction of unnecessary suffering and indiscriminate harm as well as the rule of proportionality....

In my opinion, such a system deployed and ready for action would be unlawful.”



http://www.tridentploughshares.org/article1575