On
the evening of Tuesday, June 8, three Trident Ploughshares 2000 activists
disarmed a vital part of Britain's Trident nuclear weapons system when
they disabled "Maytime," a floating laboratory barge in Loch Goil, Scotland,
which is used to check on the ability of individual submarines to
avoid sonar detection.
Ellen Moxley, 63, a peace
campaigner from Dollar, Scotland, Ulla Roder, 44, a shop assistant from
Denmark, and Angie Zelter, 49, a potter and peace campaigner from Norfolk,
England, made their way from the shore to the Maytime's anchorage by inflatable
boat. Once aboard they cut their way into the lab with cold chisels
and wrecking bars and damaged 20 computers and other electronic equip-ment
and circuit boxes, cut an antenna, jammed winches and other machinery with
superglue, sand and syrup and tipped logbooks, files, computer hardware,
and papers overboard. They draped banners over the lab, reading "Stop Nuclear
Death Research" and "TP2000 opposes Research for Genocide."
They were on board for almost
four hours before MOD police, apparently alerted at last by a media enquiry,
took them into custody. Initial estimates of the value of the damage range
from 30,000 to £100,000.
In their collective statement
the women said: "Our actions are based on the legal and ethical premise
that the U.K.'s Trident nuclear weapons system is a system prepar-ing for
the mass murder of innocent civilians over untold generations. As
loving, feeling human beings we feel responsible for trying to do everything
in our power to prevent the system from being able to operate, providing
that our actions are safe, nonviolent, open and accountable."
The Floating Laboratory
Complex is run by the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), a
prime supplier of technical advice to the U.K. Ministry of Defence.
In court the next day, all
three women were remanded to custody until a court appearance June 17.
For more information, please
contact Trident Ploughshares 2000, 42-46 Bethel St., Norwich, Norfolk NR2
1NR, England, UK, phone +44(0)1603-611953, email: tp2000@gn.apc.org
Web address: http://www.gn.apc.org/tp2000/
Requests for more information
and letters of support for the women in jail should be sent individually
addressed to Ellen Moxley, Ulla Roder, and Angie Zelter, HMP Cornton Vale,
Cornton Road, Stirling, FK9 5NY, Scotland, UK.
