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Stepping stones for a zealot on a war path spanning oceans may claim some neutrality, but in the end, they just get stepped on. Peace activists in Ireland and Iceland have sought to trip up an American supply line to the Middle East that pulled their island nations into complicity with the war against Iraq and puts them on the international list of "terrorists'" targets.
U.S. military flights through Shannon International Airport raised the ire of many on the Emerald Isle. On December 8, six Dublin Catholic Workers painted "The War Stops Here - Phil Berrigan R.I.P." on the airplane tail fin at the center of a fountain in a roundabout at the airport entrance. They also put red dye in the surrounding pool, and with photos of Iraqi children, transformed the fountain into a memorial. "Shannon has become a refueling pit stop for the U.S. war machine, complicit in thousands of deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq," their statement explains. They are charged with criminal damage.
On January 29, Mary Kelly took a hammer into the military hangar at Shannon and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage to a U.S. Navy weapons and troop transport aircraft. She refused bail conditions and remained in jail until March. She is awaiting trial.
Five days later, the aircraft was repaired and waiting in the hangar when five disarming Catholic Workers, known as the Pit Stop Plowshares, entered the base. Blood was poured and while some made a shrine to the innocent dead on the runway, others entered the hangar and had at the warplane with hammers once again. The five initially refused bail conditions. All have since been released, the last in early April. Trials on criminal damage charges are pending, likely in the summer.
When Iceland's Prime Minister announced at a November NATO meeting that his nation had placed its civil airlines on standby for NATO to move troops and weapons, one opponent publicly charged it had also placed those civilian aircraft among legitimate targets for NATO's foes, including terrorists. Thor Magnusson, head of the Peace 2000 Institute and a prominent businessman-turned-activist, also sent written warnings to Icelandair and Air Atlanta that the security of their aircraft was at risk, even when carrying commercial passengers and cargo. Within hours, Magnusson was arrested by plainclothes police at a downtown Reykjavik restaurant and jailed for several days on a charge of falsely alarming the public. His home and office were searched and computers of the relief organization he founded were seized.
The news and his arrest touched off days of media and Parliamentary debate, and prosecutors were asking for a three year prison sentence when court proceedings began in January.
For more information, contact Peace 2000 Institute, Vogasel 1, 109 Reykjavik, Iceland, info@peace2000.org. In Ireland, contact Ploughshares, 134 Phibsborough Rd., Dublin 7, Ireland, or visit www.ploughsharesireland.org
