A Blockade on Nuclear Weapons
From the 25th to the 26th of January 2007, a group of IPPNW doctors and medical students blockaded the entrance of the only British nuclear weapons base at Faslane in Scotland. This is an interview with one of the participants in the Blockade, Alex Rosen, of Germany.
ePulse: Shouldn't people respect the law? How did the police react to you?
Alex Rosen: On July 8th, 1996, the International Court of Justice, the highest judicial body in the world, ruled that nuclear weapons are illegal and the "threat or use of force by means of nuclear weapons ... is unlawful". The UK and several other countries in the world, do not seem to think that international law applies to them and continue to harbor these illegal weapons on their soil, threatening to use them in defending national interest. As health care professionals we know that nuclear weapons kill three times: by diverting funds away from health care and development (approximately 1.5 trillion British pounds have been spent on nuclear weapons by Britain alone), by killing indiscriminately when used and by continuing to kill decades later through radiation, cancer and the destruction of infrastructure.
We see the World Court ruling as more binding than a nation's rogue-like insistence to continue threatening others with WMDs. Protesters who were charged for blockading Faslane have in the past been acquitted of these charges for that very reason. We feel we're doing the right - the legal thing. The police seem to be sympathetic to our cause and were more than helpful - obviously not wanting us to get the impression that they were in? any way condoning the base, but rather doing their business in protecting state property.
ePulse: Describe the moment when people blocked the road.
Alex Rosen: One of the doctors took to the megaphone while 10 doctors began to cross the street and laid down flat in the entrance of Faslane base. The speech culminated in the words: "...one day it becomes too much to bare. One day, enough lines have been crossed and it is the duty of the public and the responsibility of those who act in public interest to react - to join hands and stand up for what is right. Today, we are taking a stand - against illegal weapons of mass destruction on British soil, against a policy that is incompatible with British and International law, against nuclear submarines stationed in Faslane and for peace, health and a world free of nuclear weapons." The police called in a second truck of people who then took each protester by the four extremities, picked them up and carried them to the detention camp, where they were processed and send off to jail in Glasgow.