(editorial)
Broad support within the peace movement for so-called "Citizens' Inspection" actions is already being reflected in practice by emerging differences of intent and interpretation.
Due to the international proliferation of these actions, it is important to thoughtfully and respectfully consider the differences as we proceed and the model evolves.
Different names are applied to citizens' inspection actions depending on local context and choice of the participants, some including the words weapons, disarmament, or verification in their self-description. Some criticize the use of the word "citizen" to describe participants who may not in fact see themselves as subjects of one nation-state or another, and least of all of the United Nations. Others question whether the rule of law, even international law, can ever promote justice, when only certain acts of war - and not war itself - are considered criminal?
Some citizens' inspection actions have stressed the participation of important or notable people, while others have underlined the necessity of ordinary citizens stepping forward to take responsibility for disarmament.
But the principal point of departure in our point of view concerns civil
disobedience: the differing opinions on whether or not one should risk
arrest while asserting a right of inspection. 
Civil disobedience has been an integral part of the anti-nuclear movement from the very beginning. The zenith of organized violence represented by the atomic bomb has inevitably produced a movement of individuals consciously engaging in nonviolent direct action that risks or even provokes arrest.
Many of the members of various citizens' weapons inspection teams have been arrested asserting their right and responsibility to conduct their inspections. However, Canadian participants in citizens' weapons inspection actions at sub base Bangor and at the Electric Boat Corporation assert that one key to their "great media, educational and political success" was "no intention, desire, or need to break any laws." Indeed, the first of five principles of the Citizens' Weapons Inspection Team, as organized by End the Arms Race in Vancouver, is to work within the laws of the country.
David Morgan, president of Veterans Against Nuclear Arms and participant in both the Electric Boat and Bangor inspection teams, writes that "These gross violations of law emerge more clearly if our citizens' inspection team scrupulously respects the law. As Citizen Inspectors, we appear outside these facilities to represent the law and to stand in the greatest possible contrast to those who are so flagrantly, and with such peril to human survival, breaking it within."
Peter Coombes, president of End the Arms Race, and also a participant in both the Bangor and Electric Boat inspection teams, believes that citizens' weapons inspections which don't violate local laws have the potential to involve more people, including those who may not be willing to risk arrest.
Citizen inspectors who engage in civil disobedience act upon the belief that international humanitarian and war crime law justifies and invites such action. If we claim an international legal right to engage in the act of inspection, should we not also assert that claim in local courts when our legitimate actions apparently conflict with local laws?
Underlying these differences are quite different perceptions about how the law bears upon individual moral and legal obligations in the face of weapons of mass or indiscriminate destruction.
The proliferation of citizens' inspection actions for weapons of mass destruction is being documented, considered, and promoted in several recent reports. For Mother Earth, initiator of the Citizens' Summons of NATO leaders in 1997 and promoter of subsequent international citizens' inspection actions through the Nuclear Weapons Abolition Days network (including the upcoming coordinated day of weapons inspections on October 1 ), has recently produced a booklet to help others consider the issues involved and take similar action. Available for a donation to FME, Lange Steenstraat 16/d, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
The Fellowship of Reconciliation's Week of Action Against Weapons of Mass Destruction report reconciles these differences regarding civil disobedience by observing that "the flexibility of the approach allows the inspectors to either respect or break the local law in order to uphold international law, depending on the risks the inspectors are willing to accept and the mandate of their individual consciences. With citizens' weapons inspections, peace and justice activists can shed their protest signs and take a more proactive role in ridding their countries of weapons of mass destruction." (FOR, POB 271, Nyack, NY 10960, (914)358-4601; email: fornatl@igc.org )
Reports on the August 3 inspection at Electric Boat have also been prepared by both End the Arms Race (Suite 405, 825 Granville Street, Vancouver BC V6Z 1K9, Canada, (604)687-3223; email: info@peacewire.org ) and Veterans Against Nuclear Arms (c/o David Morgan, National President, 240 Holyrood Rd., North Vancouver BC, V7N 2R5, Canada; email: dmorgan@web.net )
For our part, editing the Nuclear Resister, we're encouraged and appreciate hearing about the growing use of this model for nonviolent action, arrests or not. But with our focus on prisoner support and civil disobedience, and due to limited space, we cannot commit to comprehensive reporting of events not resulting in arrest.
As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.
