Millenium at the Nevada Test Site

(Thanks to Nevada Desert Experience for this report.)

Over 500 peace activists gathered shortly before midnight on New Year's Eve at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site near Las Vegas, Nevada, to pray and demonstrate for the end of the nuclear age at the dawn of a new century and millennium. Actor Martin Sheen and Rev. Dan Berrigan were among the 313 protesters from around the U.S. who walked onto the Test Site in a candlelight procession minutes after midnight, in the first act of civil disobedience in the new year.

Though carrying permits from the Western Shoshone nation, on whose land the Test Site sits, the protesters were arrested by private Wackenhut security guards and Nye County sheriffs, cited for trespass and released several hours later.

The next evening, more than one hundred demonstrators, accompanied by Las Vegas police, held a New Year's Day march and vigil on the Las Vegas Strip. They sang and distributed information about nuclear testing to tourists while they marched. When the group crossed the street to turn around and head back to their starting point, they temporarily closed down all lanes of traffic on the Strip!

The protests at the Test Site and on the Las Vegas Strip were part of a four day event, "Millennium 2000 -Walking the Ways of Peace." Hundreds of activists from across North America listened to speakers, attended workshops, and shared in prayer and song over the holiday weekend. The gathering was organized by the Nevada Desert Experience, a faith-based disarmament organization.

For more information, contact the Nevada Desert Experience, P.O. Box 4487, Las Vegas, NV 89127, (702)646-4814, nde@igc.org