(from news releases of the Fellowship of Reconciliation)
Ten people were arrested on Hiroshima Day while attempting to conduct a nonviolent citizens' weapons inspection at the U.S. Navy Sub Base in Groton, Connecticut, issuing a call for nuclear disarmament and an end to economic sanctions on Iraq. Hiroshima Day, August 6, is also the eighth anniversary of the sanctions. They were charged with criminal trespass and released pending federal court dates.
The Citizens Weapons Inspection Team, organized by the Fellowship
of Reconciliation (FOR), contacted Base Commander Nestleroad in advance
and informed him of their intentions to investigate for evidence of weapons
of mass destruction on the base. On August 3, in conjunction with an attempted
citizens inspection of the nearby Electric Boat shipyards (see below) a
team surveyed the base from a small airplane and confirmed the location
of three rows of seven bunkers suspected of containing nuclear weapons.
The U.S. Navy Sub Base in Groton homeports Seawolf and other attack submarines
that are capable of firing nuclear-armed cruise missiles and deployed ships
to the Persian Gulf during the last crisis over inspection teams in Iraq.
Seventy-five people from New York and New England gathered on August 6 at the base entrance to pray, sing, and hear speeches calling for disarmament and de-linking the economic sanctions on Iraq from inspections for suspect weapons. Then, the inspection team approached the guard booth, and were met by a base representative who deferred them to the Public Affairs office. The team informed the base that citizens have a right and a duty under the Nuremberg Principles to oppose war crimes that may be carried out in their name. They warned that the base was out of compliance with international law, particularly the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice in July 1996.
When the conversation with base officials stalled, the team attempted to carry out their inspection without the Navy's assistance. The inspectors slowly walked with linked hands toward the line of soldiers blocking their way, who gracefully backpedaled several hundred feet, before stopping and pulling the inspectors off the road to arrest them.
The arrested members of the citizens' inspection team are: Frances Crowe, Richard Deats, Sam Hine, Bruce Martin, Hattie Nestel, Clayton Ramey, Cal Robertson, Vincent Romano, Ginny Schneider, and Peter Weeks.
In a companion nonviolent action August 3, FOR collaborated with the Canadian group End the Arms Race and others to send a team of ten political and civic leaders, headed by Libby Davies, member of the Canadian Parliament from Vancouver East, first to the United Nations and then to Groton, home also of the Electric Boat Corporation, manufacturer of the entire U.S. Trident submarine fleet.
The Canadian participants had created similar drama without risk of arrest during a citizen's weapons inspection at the Bangor Sub Base in Washington last winter, and sought to encourage the international proliferation of such acts of civic responsibility. At the entrance to the facility, a public relations official denied the team admission to the shipyard. "You have a stake in whether your facility is willing to obey this law," cautioned Clayton Ramey, director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation's Disarmament Program.
Jayantha Dhanapala, U.N. Undersecretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, affirmed this responsibility in his meeting with the inspection team earlier that morning. Dhanapala offered his support for "initiatives that increase the role of civil society in pressuring the nuclear weapons states to conclude a binding convention to eliminate nuclear weapons."
Intent not to violate local laws, the team did nothing to provoke arrest. But before departing, they unfurled a sign in front of the assembled corporate officials and police that read: "Warning: This Facility Produces Weapons of Mass Destruction." A chartered flight over the base after the attempted on-site inspection revealed the nuclear weapons bunkers at the Sub Base, as well as submarines under construction at Electric Boat.
For more information, contact the FOR, POB 271, Nyack, NY 10960, (914)358-4601 email: fornatl@igc.org
Electric Boat Update
Cal Robertson, a disabled Vietnam veteran who has kept vigil for over a decade outside Electric Boat, was in federal court in June to face charges of reentry trespass resulting from his decision to spend part of last December 28, the Catholic Feast of the Holy Innocents, in prayer at the chapel of the nearby sub base. Robertson refused a plea agreement and pled not guilty. While "flabbergasted" prosecutors tried to persuade him to plea, Cal approached the judge with the poem by military veteran George Mizo that he distributes to people he meets. Cal asked the judge to read the poem. The judge read the poem silently and then out loud and with emotion to the court filled with sailors and Base personnel. When the judge finished, the prosecutor sheepishly told the judge that the state wasn't interested in prosecuting. The judge replied: "That is a wise decision."
