Womens Overnight Peace Camp

national | miscellaneous | news report Sunday January 05, 2003 04:16 by Edward Horgan - Shannon Peace Camp shannonpeacecamp at hotmail dot com Shannon Town, Co. Clare 061-365871

Freezing for Peace

On what may prove to be the coldest night of 2003 (down to -7 C) A womens peace camp has been set up at the entrance to Shannon Airport, Co. Clare. The purpose of the Peace Camp is to highlight the abuse of Irish neutrality due to the use of Irish airspace and Shannon airport to facilitate the US war against Iraq.

This weekend, 4th/5th January a group of female peace activists are literally freezing for peace. With temperatures well below freezing point and an additional chill factor caused by the wind comming in off the Shannon Estuary these brave people are protesting at the use of Shannon Airport as a transit and refueling point for the US military buildup for war against Iraq. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of innocent Iraqi citizens will be killed when this war very likely begins within the next six weeks. We the Irish people will be complicit in mass murder if we fail to protest at this abuse of Irish neutrality. Terrorism must be condemned regardless of whether it is perpetrated by individuals or groups such as Al-Qaida, or by out-of-control states such as Iraq, North Korea, and more recently, the United States, which is behaving as if international law and the United Nations are its tools for war rather than instruments of peace.
The peace activists at Shannon vary from teanage students to more seasoned peace campaigners such as Mary Kelly who risked her life to save Palestinians at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem last year, and Margareta Darcy who was one of the original Greenham Common Peace Women protesting against the deployment of Pershing nuclear misiles in Europe.
Urgent support is needed at the Shannon Peace Camp to provide a rota of volunteers round the clock, for these peace vigils. The objective is to shine a light on the darkness to which our government is committing each of us without our permission. 061-
Peace not war is the road to survival.
For more information phone 061-365871
email: [email protected]