Photo by Michelle Shiloh
JULY 29 UPDATE: Someone anonymously paid Dennis DuVall’s fine and he was released from prison.
On July 22, accompanied by his wife and friends, 82-year-old Dennis DuVall reported to Bautzen prison in Germany. The American citizen, who has lived in Germany for six years, will be serving a 90 day sentence for nonpayment of fines for protest actions at Büchel air base, where U.S. nuclear weapons are stored. The Veterans for Peace member spent 60 days in the same prison in 2023, also for actions at Büchel.
His statement:
I am here today as a United States citizen committed to removing American nuclear weapons out of Germany: “I am not to blame, but I am responsible.”
As a U.S. citizen, I am responsible for the production of hydrogen bombs in the USA: From the plutonium produced at the Hanford N-Reactor in Washington state, to purifying and machining the plutonium at Rocky Flats, Colorado, to building the hydrogen fusion secondary at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to the non-nuclear casing and electrical parts in Kansas City, Missouri, to final assembly of the bomb at the Pantex plant in Texas. New bomb plants are also being built in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Savannah River, S. Carolina.
I am back at Bautzen prison not because I am reverting back to criminal behavior, but because my civil resistance raises public awareness about a new nuclear arms race now speeding ahead with fantastically costly bombs and warplanes. The Life Extension Program for nuclear bombs and missiles will cost one trillion dollars over the next 30 years, which includes 400 B61-12 nuclear bombs ($28 Million each). At more than $100 million each, the F35 warplane program has already cost more than two trillion dollars over its lifetime.
Nuclear resistance is not criminal behavior, it is crime prevention. Nuclear resistance is stopping or preventing the crime of planning and preparing for nuclear war – a nuclear war that would kill millions of people and destroy all living things – omnicide! Nuclear resistance is stopping a mind-boggling waste of money that should be spent on human needs instead of death and destruction.
Video of July 22 gathering in front of the prison here.
Photo by Michelle Shiloh
Photo by Michelle Shiloh