HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
AP. 1 March 2003. Ten anti-war activists arrested at protest over U.S. military planes at Irish airport. DUBLIN -- Police arrested 10 anti-war activists Saturday as they tried to breach fences at a southwest Irish airport where U.S. military planes involved in preparation for a possible war with Iraq have been landing for months. Approximately 300 protesters from two groups marched and mounted a sit-down protest outside the entrance to Shannon Airport, where protesters last month attacked a U.S. Navy cargo aircraft with hatchets. Police drafted in about 500 officers Saturday to ensure they didn't tear down the airport's security fence as one group had threatened to do. Three U.S. government-chartered airlines that had been using Shannon as a refueling point have already diverted their daily flights to alternative airports in Glasgow, Scotland, and Frankfurt, Germany. All three of Ireland's main left-wing parties -- Labor, the Greens and Sinn Fein -- withdrew from Saturday's Shannon protests after police warnings that they could turn violent. The protesters who did turn up held a variety of placards denouncing Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, who has insisted that U.S. military refueling at Shannon doesn't infringe Ireland's constitutional neutrality. "Judas Bertie sold our neutrality for U.S. dollars," read one protester's handwritten placard. When individual protesters tried to walk through police lines toward the fence, minor scuffles broke out, but police reported no injuries. "It's quite incredible that the government has created a virtual police and military state to protect U.S. war places at Shannon," said Joe Higgins, the only lawmaker at the protest. He is the sole representative in Ireland's parliament from the hard-left Socialist Party. Meanwhile, at the Green Party's annual conference Saturday in Dublin, its leading lawmakers denounced planned U.S. military action against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. Party leader Trevor Sargent, one of six Green lawmakers in Ireland's 166-member parliament, warned that if U.S.-led forces invaded it would lead to "cold-blooded murder." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ProletarianNews http://www.utopia2000.org with photo --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bdn7KI.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html ==^================================================================
