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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Greenpeace Activists Arrested in Protest at Heart of Star Wars Test Site |
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by Greenpeace
(No verified email address) |
07 May 2001
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KWAJALEIN, MARSHALL ISLANDS - May 7 - On the first day of a worldwide US diplomatic 'charm offensive' to sell President Bush's missile defence programme, two Greenpeace activists were arrested during a protest against the US Star Wars programme at the US missile test range at the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. |
The Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior, flanked by inflatable boats, and carrying a banner saying "Stop Star Wars" travelled today to the US Army missile testing range on Kwajalein Atoll in the North Pacific. Two protestors, carrying a banner saying "Just Say No", went onto the base and were arrested at the site of an X-band radar used in Star Wars tests.
Kwajalein Atoll is at the heart of the Star Wars testing program. During a test the US military fires an interceptor missile from Kwajalein which is intended to shoot down a simulated incoming enemy missile that has been fired from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Two of the last three tests have failed.
"Having set out his missile defence stall last week Bush is now dispatching a small army of diplomatic sales men to peddle Star Wars to a sceptical international community. This is not consultation, its coercion," said Mike Townsley of Greenpeace International, one of the two arrested. " The international community must refuse to be led by the US back to the Cold War and a new nuclear arms race. It must reject Star Wars now".
A team of US officials, led by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, is visiting Japan today. A second team led by Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley will visit Europe starting at NATO headquarters in Brussels tomorrow with a third, lead by Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs James Kelly visiting Australia on May 11-13.
European support is essential if the Star Wars programme is to proceed. In particular the support of the UK and Denmark is vital if the US is to include the Fylingdales and Thule early-warning radar in their plans.
America's closest European allies have expressed fears that Star Wars will ignite a new nuclear arms race and will destroy all existing and future arms control and disarmament agreements, such as the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties (START).
"The Bush administration, has ripped up the Kyoto Protocol, refused to ratify the global ban on nuclear testing, is preparing to destroy the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, rejected an international ban on landmines and has just failed for the first time in fifty years to be elected to the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Which is the real 'rogue state?" asked Townsley. "Star Wars is the single biggest threat to international security and Governments world-wide must reject it otherwise they will be culpable in propelling the world back down the path of mutually assured destruction and a new nuclear arms race." |
See also:
http://www.greenpeace.org
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