courtesy: scraptrident.org
Representative of Faslane Base Commander Receives Disarmament Delegation’s Declaration
Following a reception from Scottish Government Minister for External Affairs and International Development, Humza Yousaf, and host MSPs, Bill Kidd and Patrick Harvie, at the Scottish Parliament yesterday, where the former Mayor of Hiroshima and Chairman of the Middle Powers Initiative Dr. Tadatoshi Akiba spoke, a dozen members of the international nuclear disarmament network Abolition 2000 made a declaration in support of a “Nuclear Free Scotland” leading the way to a “Nuclear Free World” at Faslane Naval Base today.
Representing Clyde Naval Base Commander, Commodore Michael Wareham, the Base Duty Officer received the Abolition 2000 Edinburgh/Faslane Declaration from Abolition 2000 member John Burroughs, Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy. The Declaration, was made at the North Gate of the Faslane Base at noon today, Friday 19 April, and supports “the efforts of Scottish citizens and legislators to establish Scotland as a nuclear-weapon-free zone, and reject the nuclear weapons based on its territory“.
According to Alyn Ware, International Coordinator of the network Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND) the Declaration will “Affirm that nuclear weapons are unworthy of civilization and an unacceptable threat to current and future generations.” He added that it would “commend the non-violent direct actions undertaken at Faslane to expose the catastrophic threats to humanity and the environment and oppose the UK nuclear weapons” based on the Clyde.”
The Abolition 2000 network held its annual meeting in Edinburgh, before many of the representatives of NGOs head to Geneva for the Preparatory Committee meeting of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty beginning next week. Alyn Ware said “We chose to meet in Edinburgh to support the movements for nuclear disarmament here. Scotland may be the first European country to reject nuclear weapons. That could lead to the UK being the first P-5 country to abandon its nuclear weapons, a step which could help pave the way for the global abolition of nuclear weapons.”
The Declaration and presentation to the Base Commander’s representative was the culmination of a week of campaigining against nuclear weapons in Glasgow, Edinburgh and at Faslane which began with the Scrap Trident demonstration in Glasgow and continued on Monday with the Big Blockade.
Amongst the conference delegates who visited Faslane were Aaron Tovish, Executive Director of the Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign, Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation, and Susi Snyder, Nuclear Disarmament Programme Leader for IKV Pax Christi in the Netherlands.
Abolition 2000 is a network of over 2000 organizations in more than 90 countries world wide working for a global treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons. Faslane Naval Base is homeport to the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system and was the scene of the Scrap Trident protest Monday when 45 protesters were arrested for blocking the entrances