N-protesters set up 100 camps

Press, 10 November 1983, Page 8

N-protesters set up 100 camps

NZPA-Reuter London Women anti-nuclear campaigners say that they are camping outside 100 United States military installations in Britain to press their protest against the deployment of American cruise missiles. A spokeswoman for the protesters said yesterday that the camps were being set up for 24 hours to coincide with an attempt by the women’s lawyers in a New York Court to stop 160 cruise missiles from arriving in Britain. The women will file a case today in a New York Federal Court against President Ronald Reagan and the United States Government. They see the Court bid as a last chance of halting the arrival of cruise, which Britain’s Conservative Government has pledged will be operational by the end of the year. Their case argues that cruise missiles, or any other nuclear weapons, breach

The Hague and Geneva conventions, which . say that non-combatants and neutral countries must be protected in the event of war. The network of “peace camps” set up yesterday ranged from southern England to the Shetland Islands. Greenham Common, the United States air base where the first cruise missiles will arrive has had a women’s anti-nuclear camp outside its gates for more than two years. An airlift of equipment for cruise is now well under way there. Yesterday a giant United States Air Force Galaxy plane landed at the base and was immediately encircled by armed paratroopers. Reporters outside the base say that 10 cargo planes have now flown in equipment. Security is extremely tight, with up to 1000 troops inside the barbed wire fence and about 400 police outside. Anti-nuclear campaigners suffered one legal set-back yesterday. A judge ruled in Oxford that English courts

had no power to intervene in the Government’s prerogative to deploy nuclear weapons in time of war. Judge Kenneth Mynett gave the ruling after hearing appeals by 11 protesters who were among more than 750 people arrested in June during a four-day blockade of the United States air base. • Australian anti-nuclear demonstrators are considering attempts to enter the top-secret Pine Gap defence base during a two-week protest which will begin tomorrow. Biff Ward, spokeswoman for Women For Survival, the group organising the demonstration, said that the move was being advocated by some protesters to highlight Commonwealth legislation prohibiting entry to such bases. Ms Ward said that a lot of women were very concerned about the legislation, the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act. “The act contains utterly Draconian provisions which

we believe would not be found in any other legislation in Australia.” She said that no decision had been taken on any attempt to enter the sensitive joint United States-Australia defence facility, and emphasised that the group intended their protest to be peaceful. Ms Ward said that 500 people had already arrived at the women-only camp at the base, about 25km south of Alice Springs, and another 300 were expected. Protesters had arrived in bus-loads from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Canberra, with smaller groups arriving by car from Adelaide, Darwin, Perth, and Hobart.

• In Rome the Italian Defence Minister, Mr Giovanni Spadolini, said yesterday that cruise missiles earmarked for Italy would be temporarily installed at a Navy air station at Sigonella, Sicily, before being taken to a nearby N.A.T.O. base for permanent deployment.

He told the defence commission of the Lower House of Parliament that the missiles would be temporarily installed at Sigonella as part of a plan to begin installation simultaneously in the various countries of the alliance. He did not disclose the dates for arrival of the missiles at Sigonella or their number. • In Bonn the West German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, yesterday accused Moscow of pursuing a policy of nuclear supremacy and political expansionism when he opened a counter-offen-sive against opponents of the missile deployments. Addressing an international conference on “Europe’s Responsibility for Peace,” Dr Kohl also defended the Western nuclear deterrent as the only guarantor of peace. He told 300 Western delegates that to avoid opening itself to blackmail, Western Europe could not accept a Soviet monopoly in landbased, medium-range

nuclear weapons. “The Soviet Union wants to threaten us Europeans and at the same time stop the United States from protecting us,” he said. The congress is the main one in a series being mounted by Dr Kohl’s Christian Democratic Union to counter the widespread campaign against N.A.T.O.’s deployment in Europe which will begin next month. The missiles are scheduled to be deployed unless talks between the United States and the Soviet Union in Geneva produce a new agreement. ® In Paris the Canadian Prime Minister, Mr Pierre Trudeau, said yesterday that he was actively pursuing his idea for a concerted attempt by the five main nuclear Powers to halt the arms race. Mr Trudeau was speaking to reporters after meeting the French President, Mr Francois Mitterrand, at the start of a tour of six West European capitals to discuss

his peace proposal. He launched his campaign last month at a Canadian disarmament conference and set up a Government task force to work out disarmament proposals. Mr Trudeau has called on the United States, the Soviet Union, France, Britain, and China to establish limits on their strategic nuclear arsenals and urged a halt to the spread of nuclear weapons to other countries. He has said that his objective is to reduce EastWest tension and explore the possibility of resuming a dialogue between the two camps. He has given no details of any specific proposals. Diplomatic sources said that he was expected to outline his plan and give an account of his European consultations in a main speech in the next two weeks. He was likely to visit Washington before the end of the month, and Moscow before the end of the year, sources said.