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15-Nov-2004

‘Burghfield 6’ found guilty but only ordered to pay token fines.

by: Rupert Read

Worldwide: The ‘Burghfield 6,’ the six ‘Trident Ploughshares’ anti-war activists from Leicester, London and Norwich who entered Burghfield, one of the United Kingdom’s Weapons of Mass Destruction bases, and put it out of action for over an hour, left Reading Magistrates’ Court having been found guilty of criminal damage. Their main reaction was one of disappointment despite being pleased at the sympathetic reception to their legal arguments throughout the trial.

Their arguments that their actions were valid under international law impressed the court that then characterized them as “uncommonly conscientious people” and regretted passing a guilty sentence. Sympathizing with the sincerity, seriousness and “high moral fibre” of the six, the court only ordered the total of damages and costs to be £380, which is less even than the Ministry of Defence’s estimate for the cost of the repairs to the fence, which the activists so as to gain entry to the base. Also, no punitive fines were levied, and all the defendants were given conditional discharges.

In their closing arguments, the defendants argued that the very ownership of nuclear weapons is not only immoral but also criminal under international law. The presiding Magistrate agreed that since United Kingdom’s membership to the International Criminal Court is recent, there is the possibility that actions and statements, which abetted internationally illegal activities, such as those made by the minister of defence, Geoff Hoon, when he threatened to use nuclear weapons against Iraq, being adjudged criminal. If so, then any action, such as by the six activists, taken to prevent that crime, of which the maintenance of the Burghfield base could be argued to be, might not constitute criminal damage. Also, one of the defendants pointed out that the United Kingdom could be in breach of the Non-Proliferation Treaty due to the work being done at Burghfield alongside American scientists under the legally-questionable British-American ‘Mutual Defence Agreement’ and through it’s refusal to disarm itself of Trident nuclear missiles.

As the Magistrate made very clear that, under the Nuremberg principles, simply obeying orders is no defence in law, one of the defendants, Kathryn Amos cited a discussion with her interviewing police officer in which the officer declared that he was happy simply to obey orders in manning Burghfield base. At this point, one must recall one of the original reasons why the action was undertaken, namely to inform all Burghfield personnel of their rights and responsibilities under the Geneva conventions and the Nuremberg laws.

Upon departing the court, one of the defendants, Kathryn Amos, added that “it is crucial that our message is understood by those working on nuclear bases: We have no personal enmity against you. We believe that you need to be told the truth about your responsibilities under international law as well as British law. If you were told the truth, we think you would see that what you are engaged in is criminal activity that must end. We hope that you will draw this conclusion, before, one day, it may be too late. We encourage all citizens to do similar actions to that that we took in Burghfield this June, until Britain’s WMDs are disarmed.”

In a recent development, one of the defendants, Ms. Zina Zelter, who is a University of East Anglia graduate, has refused to pay her fine, so she will eventually go to prison for her conscientious action.

Source: Rupert Read: 07946 459066 or 01603 592079 or rupertreadrules@yahoo.co.uk