MANY TO MANY 67

In its concern to draw public attention to international law and to play its part in helping to forestall a nuclear incident, this ongoing campaign is by no means unrelated to the foregoing article.

The latest reported incident is of two British women, Rosie James and Rachel Wenham, who in the early hours of 1 February 1999 "safely and non-violently" carried out disarmament work to Prevent HMS Vengeance, the new British Trident submarine, from leaving its dock. Armed with hammers, chisels, crowbars, screwdrivers and paint the two women swam 300 metres in freezing conditions, reached their objective and dismantled the radio equipment used to launch weapons of mass destruction. The two women have been arrested and our latest information is that they are being held in police custody at Barrow in Furness, where the submarine is docked.

The international Law defence invoked by Trident 2000 activists is in part based upon the principle established by the Nuremberg Crimes Trial Charter that: "individuals have intentional duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience imposed by the individual state", and by the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal that "anyone with knowledge of illegal activity and an opportunity to do something about it is a potential criminal under international law unless the person takes affirmative measures to prevent the commission of crime."

The reluctance of our governments to give primacy to international law, and by their disregard of it often to imply that international law is not "real" law, has been authentically addressed by Lord Murray, a previous Lord Advocate of Scotland in a paper published in May 1998, entitled "Can Trident Missiles be Lawfully Used in the Light of the Decision of the International Court of Justice", which starts off by declaring: "International law, despite any appearance to the contrary, is real law, not just international morality or international expediency."

Peace activist Angie Zelter was in a similar case on 22 September 1998 found guilty as charged but admonished and set free after her meticulously referenced and well presented defence invoking international law. She had used a similar line of defence when in July 1996 she was found "not guilty" of disabling a British Aerospace (BAe) Hawk warplane bound for Indonesia for possible use in East Timor, (see issue no. 59).

This small group of courageous women are pledged to persist until the year 2000 in their attempt to disarm the UK Trident Nuclear Weapons System "in a peaceful, non-violent, open and fully accountable manner."

In their persistent resolve to draw attention to international law as established by the Nuremberg Charter and the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, these gentle but resolute women are pioneering a peaceful and non-violent mode of protest against what many Perceive to be international crime, highlighting its total lack of relevance to a world striving towards becoming an integrated world community.


Contact: see htpp://www.gn.apc.org/tp 2000 or contact
David McKenzie on +01324 880744, E-mail:

Many to Many
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Anthony Brooke and Gita Brooke, co-founders
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Many to Many
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