Raytheon 9 Women in court Mon 21st Sept

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Thursday September 17, 2009 16:09

by Derry Anti War Coalition - DAWC

charged with burglary and criminal damage

The 9 women who occupied arms company Raytheon's premises in Derry during the Israeli assault on Gaza are being "arraigned" before the court on Monday next, 21st Sept. While they tried to repeat what the Raytheon 9 men did and bring down the computer system, the heightened security meant that they did little damage. Nonetheless, the state is going after the women who were trying to stop war crimes while the war criminals walk free. Four men arrested as they demonstrated in support of the women are also in court on Monday.

In January this year, 9 women from the Derry Anti War Coalition tried to get into the Raytheon offices in Derry in order to disable its computers and thereby impede the war crimes which Israel were carrying out in Gaza using Raytheon missiles (including some small guage missiles ordered specially from Raytheon for use in built-up areas and in tunnels). Unfortunately, they encountered considerably heightened security - including a series of steel doors with electronic locks that work only with four-digit codes. They managed to get into the building, up to the second floor and through one lot of the steel doors when they became trapped in an 'airlock' situation between two sets of doors. While there, they broke an alarm while trying to break the four-digit code. This is the criminal damage they are charged with....all £380 worth of it - compared to the £350,000 worth of damage that the Raytheon 9 men did in 2006.

However, while they did relatively little damage, they did manage to disrupt work there for an afternoon and, shortly afterwards, Raytheon announced it would not be renewing its lease on the offices, though it said it would remain in the Derry area. However, it now seems that the company may have left Derry - having been left in no doubt that every time its missiles are used in war crimes, the DAWC would do everything it could to disrupt Raytheon's work and impede the war crimes in which the company is complicit.

DAWC is holding a protest in solidarity with the women at 9.30am next Monday 21st Sept. Bring banners etc. Messages of support to the women can be sent to [email protected].