Mary Kelly Addresses 'World Court' at the WSF in Mumbai

international | anti-war / imperialism | feature

Sunday January 25, 2004 18:52

by Support Team

Excerpt from Address to Court: "Shannon is the `welcome mat' for US troops en route to Iraq, and the entry point to the Middle East. This `welcome mat' was NOT put there by the Irish citizens, but by a Government that continues to ignore the will of its people. . . . . Faced with the mounting evidence of US and British determination to attack Iraq in spite of worldwide opposition I felt obliged to take direct action.

One immediate result of my action and a similar action a few days later by 5 Catholic Workers, was the pull out of 2 military carriers from using the airport. This temporary withdrawal, although a success, was not a triumph. Numerous US air carriers continued to use Shannon for refuelling facilities, and hence the Irish Government continued to fuel the war. This refuelling continues today, and I am here to call for an International campaign to support those of us in Ireland who are engaged in this fight.

Our actions achieved three things: 1) The use of Shannon airport by the US military inescapably captured the media headlines and alerted Irish people to the realities and seriousness of Ireland’s incorporation into the build up to an illegal war 2) It struck a serious blow to the confidence of the US military security at the airport 3) It inspired Irish anti-war activists. The biggest demonstration ever against US military aggression happened two weeks later in Dublin, our capital city, where over 150,000 people marched, while other marches happened throughout the country.

By the time of my trial in June, however, the anti-war feeling of Feb 15th was shown to be mere sentiment in the face of persistent scare-mongering about US disinvestment from Ireland and consequent economic collapse. In spite of this huge opposition on Feb 15, only a small number of people stood in my support outside the courthouse in June. Yet my trial featured such international figures as Ramsey Clarke, Scott Ritter, Dennis Halliday and Michael Birmingham. I faced a virtual media blackout and practical desertion by the popular movement, including the Left. Fortunately, the Arabic TV station Al Jazeera were there to document the whole trial.

My experience has taught me that one of the biggest weapons of Imperialism facing us in Ireland is its ability to anaesthetise the public’s conscience and there is no doubt that the last 10 years of Ireland’s economic boom – popularly known as the Celtic Tiger – has done just that. The Celtic Tiger, almost entirely a US dollar creation, has coincided closely with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the creation of the Project for the New American Century. Shannon airport, the closest European international airport to the USA, is being privatised. It is now clear that Shannon airport is to become a major US military airbase as part of the US conquest of the Middle East, Eastern Europe and ultimately Western Europe. The Celtic Tiger was the price of the conscience of Ireland."

ORIGINAL ARTICLE AS SUBMITTED TO IMC IRL NEWSWIRE

Peace activist Mary Kelly, currently awaiting a retrial for her hatchet job on a US warplane at Shannon Airport last year, received a warm welcome when she spoke at the World Social Forum (WSF) in Mumbai (Bombay) last weekend, but was surprised by the refusal of Mary Robinson to support the "upholding of international law".

Kelly, who was invited to participate as a voice of resistance at the World Court of Women on US War Crimes at the WSF, returns to Dublin on Sunday 25th Jan 2004.

"It was an honour for me to speak at the court, tell my story and appeal for help, specifically for international law to be upheld. It was encouraging and inspiring to be with very committed people, who have dedicated their lives to justice and peace."

While at the WSF, Kelly met former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson and publicly asked her to support the establishment in Ireland of principles of international law. To the astonishment of many members of the international community at the WSF, the former UN Commissioner for Human Rights refused.

"As former President of Ireland and as a lawyer, I cannot" Robinson said. She added, however, that she was glad to see Kelly at the WSF and wished her well.

Speaking about Mary Robinson's reaction, Kelly said: "I understand her position, but I don't agree with it. When people who have influential positions in our society don't speak out, citizens like myself are compelled to do civil disobedience and show how our domestic and international laws are being broken."

Kelly, and others who took action at Shannon, felt morally obliged to try to halt Ireland’s involvement in the US invasion of Iraq. They have cited in their defence the Nuremberg Charter which authorises individuals to act when international law has been breached.

As the chief prosecutor in the 1945 Nuremberg War Crimes Trial put it, "individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience ... Therefore [individual citizens] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring."

Other prominent speakers at the World Court in Mumbai included former US Attorney General, Ramsey Clarke, and former UN Assistant Secretary General, Denis Halliday.

Expert testimonies were given by many speakers, including from the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Iraq, Hawaii, Cuba, Palestine, Croatia, South Africa.

Kelly said: "We heard the hard facts of the destruction done by the US from the effects of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, to listening to the testimonies of survivors of Agent Orange in Vietnam, survivors from Hiroshima, victims of war against the Indigenous peoples, war against the black peoples, the homeless, victims of nuclear experiments inside the US, victims of war from Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq."

Kelly, who was joined at the WSF by fellow Irish peace activist, Caoimhe Butterly, said: "I am very heartened by the support I have received here in India. Over 150,000 people attended the forum, and the waves of its effect will be felt very strongly in resistance movements throughout the world."

END OF NEWS REPORT

ADDRESS by MARY KELLY to the WSF, Mumbai, India, Sunday 18th January 2004

My name is Mary Kelly and I am a 51-year old nurse and a mother of 4 children. I am facing a retrial in the coming weeks with a possible 10-year prison sentence if convicted, for disarming a US Navy warplane refuelling in Shannon International Airport, in Co Clare, on the west coast of Ireland. That plane was parked illegally in a civilian airport in a neutral country on its way to Iraq bringing armaments to the most blatant war of aggression and savagery in decades. I took that action fully aware of the consequences, in order to force the Irish Government’s illegal complicity with the genocide of the Iraqi people into the public consciousness.

Blowing up innocent children, their brothers and sisters, parents and grandchildren in this so-called war on terror, or in any war, is an obscenity. Dropping napalm, cluster bombs, DU tipped warheads, patriot missiles on innocent people is insane and beyond belief. All these weapons have passed through Shannon. The sanitization of all these facts by the media is criminally irresponsible.

On Jan 29th 2003 at 4.00am I took an axe and smashed the nose cone and then the fuel lines of that warplane and temporarily decommissioned it. I did so because I, unlike the Irish Government, respect the rule of law and especially the rule of international law. Furthermore my action was taken not just to defend the rule of international law as a matter of ‘choice’, but because the Nuremberg principles, on which international law is founded, ‘oblige’ me to do just that:

“Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore [individuals] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring.” The Nuremberg Tribunal 1945-1946

How did I, an ordinary woman, come to be in this situation? I was alerted to the key role of Ireland in the lawless US/British military operation when some dedicated activists - skilled plane spotters – alerted the Irish people by documenting massive increases in US military air traffic through the airport, many camouflaged as ordinary non-military planes. That monitoring took place mainly in the middle of the night, in miserable winter conditions and under constant state harassment. Largely due to that work, Scott Ritter was later to describe Shannon Airport as “part of the US military conveyor-belt of death”.

Some committed activists set up a peace camp to facilitate the monitoring of the use of Shannon as a US military air base and to create a focus for the opposition to it. We exhausted the usual forms of protest – lobbying, letters, marches etc – and were faced with a government that refused even to acknowledge that there was any departure from Ireland’s traditional neutral status. Yet the accelerating US military build-up to another war on Iraq made the conclusion inescapable that Ireland’s role this time was CENTRAL to US military operations.

Shannon is the “welcome mat” for US troops en route to Iraq, and the entry point to the Middle East. This “welcome mat” was NOT put there by the Irish citizens, but by a Government that continues to ignore the will of its people.

The peace camp endured for one month in freezing winter conditions, with just tents and one caravan. It got phenomenal support, and brought to the Irish public a crystal clear focus on what was transiting through our civilian airport. Namely; armed foreign troops, DU, Napalm, Daisy cutter bombs, class-A explosives, and possibly prisoners en route to Guantanamo Bay during the invasion of Afghanistan. This is only a fraction of what is still going through there, that we know of, every day and night.

Faced with the mounting evidence of US and British determination to attack Iraq in spite of worldwide opposition I felt obliged to take direct action.

One immediate result of my action and a similar action a few days later by 5 Catholic Workers, was the pull out of 2 military carriers from using the airport. This temporary withdrawal, although a success, was not a triumph. Numerous US air carriers continued to use Shannon for refuelling facilities, and hence the Irish Government continued to fuel the war. This refuelling continues today, and I am here to call for an International campaign to support those of us in Ireland who are engaged in this fight.

Our actions achieved three things:
1) The use of Shannon airport by the US military inescapably captured the media headlines and alerted Irish people to the realities and seriousness of Ireland’s incorporation into the build up to an illegal war
2) It struck a serious blow to the confidence of the US military security at the airport
3) It inspired Irish anti-war activists. The biggest demonstration ever against US military aggression happened two weeks later in Dublin, our capital city, where over 150,000 people marched, while other marches happened throughout the country.

By the time of my trial in June, however, the anti-war feeling of Feb 15th was shown to be mere sentiment in the face of persistent scare-mongering about US disinvestment from Ireland and consequent economic collapse. In spite of this huge opposition on Feb 15, only a small number of people stood in my support outside the courthouse in June. Yet my trial featured such international figures as Ramsey Clarke, Scott Ritter, Dennis Halliday and Michael Birmingham. I faced a virtual media blackout and practical desertion by the popular movement, including the Left. Fortunately, the Arabic TV station Al Jazeera were there to document the whole trial.

My experience has taught me that one of the biggest weapons of Imperialism facing us in Ireland is its ability to anaesthetise the public’s conscience and there is no doubt that the last 10 years of Ireland’s economic boom – popularly known as the Celtic Tiger – has done just that. The Celtic Tiger, almost entirely a US dollar creation, has coincided closely with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the creation of the Project for the New American Century. Shannon airport, the closest European international airport to the USA, is being privatised. It is now clear that Shannon airport is to become a major US military airbase as part of the US conquest of the Middle East, Eastern Europe and ultimately Western Europe. The Celtic Tiger was the price of the conscience of Ireland.

Criminalising the resistance movement:

The Irish State is now using the legal system to criminalize people who stand up to be counted, people in the anti war movement resisting and challenging the US takeover of the Irish court system, where so far International law is not recognized. The peace camp was bullied out of existence by High Court orders enforced by so-called Guardians of Peace, An Garda Siochana. Plane spotters have had their monitoring equipment confiscated, activists are routinely harassed, and tied up in endless court hearings presided over by a judge thoroughly in favour of the US agenda in Shannon. Over 30 protestors are now banned from Co. Clare, which is fast becoming a second home for US troops, where soldiers in full military uniform, on stopovers from missions to Iraq, can be seen shopping in towns near to Shannon. The media obligingly puts a spin on anti-war movement news, in deference to what the US masters require.

Ireland holds the EU presidency for the next 6 months. Curiously, Ireland is a member of PFP, Partnership for Peace, indicating a country that has no intention of joining NATO. Among the duties of our Taoiseach ( PM ) Ahern, he has taken upon himself the task of pushing the EU common defence policy. So a supposedly neutral country will be leading the EU into an aggressive military alliance!?!

Ahern’s government has allowed over 125,000 troops to pass through Shannon since the illegal invasion of Iraq. Ireland is NOT neutral. Whatever its aspirations, the EU is well on the road to being a support system for the new Empire. Ireland should NEVER be a part of any Empire!

Our job as activists is to re-ignite the public conscience that has been dulled. Our job is to safeguard and preserve what is best in humanity, what was aspired to in all the old texts, and in the modern attempts like the UN charter. Our job is to safeguard International Law.

Amnesty Internationals reports states that the US has harboured, trained and supported the worst state terrorists in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. They have been responsible for the death of millions, yet terrorism is never mentioned in connection with the US administration.

The British Government refused to co-operate with investigations into the murder of many innocent Irish people, including 2 of our greatest human rights lawyers, Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson. For 30 years it has blocked the investigation into the biggest hidden massacre of the troubles, the Dublin-Monaghan bombings of 1974. Where there is a question of State collusion there is NO clarity, and NO JUSTICE.

The biggest threats in the world are our Governments who are not recognizing their own laws nor International laws and treaties. The media shamelessly aids them describing an illegal, unprovoked, brutal invasion with the highest technology available, as an operation of “Enduring Freedom”.

As Bobby Sands, who sacrificed his young life in the struggle for Irish freedom, said in his moving poem, The Rhythm of Time
"The spirt that says I’M RIGHT... was buried at wounded Knee...
but it will rise again; it has withstood the blows of a million years..
and will do so to the end."

Similarly the spirit of the Palestinian people, who refuse to be crushed in the face of a most brutal illegal occupation by Israel, backed by the US; we must draw on the example of such courageous people who never give up.

Irish men and women have fought long and hard for freedom from tyranny, with many sacrifices on the road to that cherished goal. Irish women have shown extraordinary courage, and been the backbone of resistance to the British Empire. Women like Anne Devlin, who faithfully supported Robert Emmet 200 years ago in an uprising against British occupation. Women who out of love of freedom, worked and helped organize the support for the struggle for Independence.

My fight, in a nutshell, is about having International law recognized and upheld in the Irish courts. When we say we are neutral, I want it to be REAL. I want myself and others facing trial to win our court cases and be ONE country where the US has to respect our laws and leave, and thereby inspire other countries also to kick out these wholesale terrorists masquerading as peacemakers.
Lets keep our laws and insist they are used.

The most remarkable phenomenon of the last 12 months is the isolation of activists like myself who are forced to rely on the goodwill of some excellent individuals but who are in the end struggling in very weakened circumstances to construct legal cases to reclaim the right to be judged by the principles of International Law. I call upon this movement at the World Court, and World Social Forum, Mumbai India, to organise International Lawyers and to support activists facing criminal charges by:

1. Coming forward to support them instead of waiting to be asked
2. Coordinating national and international campaigns around the defence of the activists, and making this Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 18th a day of actions related to defending the Nuremberg Judgement and International Law.
3. Launching a concerted international campaign to reinstate international law – the UN Charter and the principles which inspired it – and bring the US and UK, Bush and Blair, before the International Criminal Court in the Hague to answer for their crimes.
4. Protesting outside Irish Embassies and Consuls during the trials of Shannon peace activists.

Further, I call on activists worldwide to come and join with us in protest at Shannon in June 2004, when George Bush will be visiting.

Finally I invite the World Court Tribunal on Afghanistan and Iraq to come and hold one of their court sessions in Ireland.

Thanks you to the Asian Women’s group who organised this World Court, and to Denis Halliday for making my case known to them.

In our quest for justice, we must keep alive our hope and courage, speak out, support each other and never give up!

END OF SPEECH BY MK