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NEARLY 300 people, including clergy and church members, have been arrested since the start of a protest campaign that began in October, aimed at a year-long, daily blockade of the Faslane Trident base in Scotland.
The Faslane 365 group is protesting at the housing of four Trident nuclear submarines on the site, and is calling on the Government to start decommissioning the weapons.
On Thursday of last week, the Revd Chris Howson, Mission Priest for Bradford city centre, was one of 27 campaigners arrested outside the base and held for 31 hours. Eight members of his congregation were also arrested.
Speaking after his arrest, he told Bradford Telegraph & Argus that he had travelled to Faslane to show support. “It is clear to me that the Government’s interests are not with the majority who are opposed to Trident replacement, and who
would rather see the billions wasted on nuclear weapons spent on
health, education, or climate change.”
Earlier this month, the Faslane 365 Clergy and Religious Leaders Group had blockaded the base for a two-day period. Nine of them were arrested.
Speaking on Tuesday, the Revd Ainslie Walton, a retired Church of Scotland minister and one of those arrested, said that members of three Christian campaigning groups had supported the blockade: the Scottish Clergy Action Group, Christians Against Nuclear Arms (CANA), and the Iona Community.
After worship and prayer sessions outside the base, some of the group “took direct action and sat down in front of the gate to stop the traffic coming in and out”. Mr Walton said he and eight others were locked up at the police station for about 20 hours.
“We were then released with a letter basically telling us not to do it again. The police were very polite, and we were treated well, but, of course, in their eyes we were breaking the law.”
Mr Walton told the Ekklesia News Service that the £76 billion estimated cost of replacing Trident could go a long way to making poverty history.
The Revd David Paterson, a retired priest in Oxford diocese, who was also arrested, said: “Our ‘independent’ nuclear deterrent is a myth. The nuclear weapons Britain holds can only be used with US permission.
“Do our neighbours in Europe, all of whom (except France) have no nuclear weapons, go to bed each night in fear of attack? If they can defend themselves without resort to nuclear bombs, then so can we.”
Mr Walton said on Tuesday that the campaign would continue until 30 September 2007. “It is not just the protest outside the base: we are constantly organising prayer vigils and public meetings to highlight the issue.
“The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Rt Revd Alan McDonald, is very supportive. He recently visited the base on a pastoral visit, but also made a point of visiting the peace camp outside.”
A spokesman for Strathclyde Police confirmed that the group had been arrested in connection with public order offences, but a decision by the Procurator Fiscal Service meant that there would be no further proceedings.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales called on the Government this week to decommission nuclear weapons and work towards total nuclear disarmament. |
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