5th September 2006 updated 6th September 2006

A jury at Bristol Crown Court is being asked to accept for the first time in an English court that peace activists who damaged military property should be acquitted because they were trying to prevent war crimes. Dave Cockcroft, a long standing peace campaigner and local Green party member will be a witness for the defence tomorrow for Dr Margaret Jones and Paul Milling who are accused of "conspiring to cause criminal damage to property" at USAF Fairford in March 2003.
 

Dave Cockcroft who last month became a Stroud Town councillor, said: "My evidence will consist of presenting information and pictures of cluster bombs being loaded onto B-52 aircraft at Fairford during the bombing of Iraq in 2003. I can remember feeling sick when I saw that cluster bombs were being used. These weapons are commonly referred to as 'drop today and kill tomorrow'. As reported in Lebanon just last week, the use of cluster bombs leaves unexploded bomblets scattered around waiting to tear appart anyone who encounters them. They really should be banned, just like land mines."

Photo right: part of a campaign to raise awareness about Cluster bombs used during the war in Afghanistan.

Dave Cockcoft added: "I hope the trial gives a little more coverage to the continued use of these dreadful weapons and brings nearer the day when they're banned."

Dr Margaret Jones and Paul Milling have admitted breaking into the base, but claim their actions were "undertaken to disarm weapons of mass destruction with which the US and its ally Britain seek to wage war in Iraq". They were originally questioned in Stroud police station. More than 50 protesters, including a choir, held a demonstration before the case began at Bristol Crown Court on Monday and a vigil will be held there daily while the trial continues.

Dave Cockcroft added: "The pair were attempting to prevent the take-off of the US Air Force planes, which would be used during the conflict later in March 2003. This war was illegal. They did the best they could to prevent a crime from taking place. The Green party was the only main party to oppose this war from the start. Sadly our worst fears have materialised: thousands upon thousands killed, a whole country's infrastructure destroyed and terrorism on the rise."

The jury trial is expected to last up to two weeks and will be presided over by the Recorder of Bristol, Judge Thomas Crowther QC.

Last July, five members of Pitstop Ploughshares who were charged with criminal damage for disarming a US Navy plane refuelling at Shannon airport a few weeks before the start of the Iraq war were acquitted in Dublin after arguing successfully that they had a lawful excuse because they acted in order to
protect life or property in Iraq.

Update 6th Sept:

Dave Cockcroft spent the day at Court but due to legal arguments he will not now give evidence until later in the trial. Margaret Jones' barrister Hugo Charlton, who is also a Green party spokesperson, told the jury today that a person may use force as is reasonable in the course of prevention of a crime.

 
Meanwhile on the same day South-East Euro-MP Caroline Lucas has called for an international ban on cluster bombs during a European parliament debate on the Lebanon conflict.

Speaking afterwards, the Green Party Principal Speaker, who is also a patron of Action for UN Renewal, a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s National Council and a co-founder and co-president of the European Parliament’s cross-party group on Peace Initiatives, said: “An international ban of cluster bombs is long overdue. After the war in Lebanon, countless unexploded bomblets from Israeli cluster bombs remain on Lebanese territory. Long after the end of the war, these munitions continue to threaten the lives of civilians, soldiers and reconstruction workers alike. In addition to today's EP resolution on the conflict in the Middle East, which has the support of all political groups, the Greens are calling on the Council and Commission to explain which measures are necessary to achieve a comprehensive international ban of cluster bombs and to persuade Member States to destroy their remaining national stockpiles of these weapons. An immediate EU initiative for a global ban of this inhumane weapon is called for, not least in view of the Community's responsibility for those it sends to the region to assist the international reconstruction and stabilisation effort."



Further information:

Gloucestershire Green party call for a ban on Cluster bombs:
http://www.glosgreenparty.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=653&Itemid=2

For more info on the trial see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/antiwar/story/0,,1864319,00.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/04/uairbase.xml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/5313020.stm
http://www.bristol.indymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=25208
See photos at Court:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/09/350013.html