BUECHEL, Germany — Eleven international peace activists entered the Büchel Air Base southwest of Frankfurt early this morning to deliver a self-named Treaty Enforcement Order declaring that the sharing of US nuclear weapons at the base is a “criminal conspiracy to commit war crimes.”

Upon entering the base’s main gate with a printed “cease and desist order,” insisted on seeing the base commander to deliver the order in person.

“We refuse to be complicit in this crime,” said Brian Terrell of Voices for Creative Nonviolence in Chicago, Illinois. “We call for the nuclear bombs to be returned to the US immediately. The Germans want these nuclear weapons out of Germany, and so do we.”

The group included people from Germany, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. All eleven were detained by military and civilian authorities and were released after providing identification.

This is the third year in a row that a delegation of US peace activists has joined Europeans and others in protesting the US nuclear weapons at Büchel. The local group Nonviolent Action for Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (GAAA) convenes the International Action Week, demanding permanent ouster of the US nuclear weapons, cancellation of plans to replace today’s B61s with new hydrogen bombs, and Germany’s ratification of the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

“Delivery of the ‘Cease and Desist Order’ is an act of crime prevention,” said John LaForge, of the US peace group Nukewatch and coordinator of the US delegation. “The authorities think the entry is a matter of trespass. But these nuclear bomb threats violate the UN Charter, the Treaty on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.” he said, adding, “Interrupting government criminality is a duty of responsible citizenship.”

The activists included: (from the United States) Susan Crane, Richard Bishop, Andrew Lanier, Jr., Brian Terrell, Ralph Hutchison, and Dennis DuVall; (from the UK) Richard Barnard; (from The Netherlands) Margriet Bos, and Susan van der Hijden; and (from Germany) Dietrich Gerstner, and Birke Kleinwächter.

Susan van der Hijden of Amsterdam, who is just back from the US where she visited the Kansas City, Kansas site of a factory working on parts of the new replacement bomb, known as the B61-12. “The planning and training to use the US H-bombs that goes on at Büchel cannot be legal, because organizing mass destruction has been a criminal act since the Nuremberg Trials after WWII,” van der Hijden said.

A delegation of 11 peace activists from the United States arrives at a German peace camp Friday July 5 to join protests against the deployment of US nuclear weapons there.

The delegation, coordinated by the group Nukewatch in Wisconsin, joins the “International Action Camp” focused on the Büchel Air Base, the site of scores of protests for over 20 years because it is home to the US Air Force’s 702nd Munitions Support Squadron and its “protection level 1 stockpile” of approximately 20 US B61 hydrogen bombs.*

The US delegation is third in three years to join the campaign to rid Büchel of the US Air Force’s nuclear weapons, the last remaining in Germany.

An annual event coordinated by the German peace group Nonviolent Action for Abolition of Nuclear Arms (GAAA), International Action Camp is modeled after efforts that ousted nuclear-armed US Pershing and Cruise missiles from Germany in the 1980s. During the camp from July 7 to 16 (https://buechel-atombombenfrei.jimdo.com/international/international-action-camp/), the delegates — from Georgia, Montana, California, Tennessee, Arizona, and Wisconsin — will join colleagues from Germany, The Netherlands, the UK, Austria, and a group of student peace workers from around the world.

The delegates share a shocked alarm over U.S. military production of a new B61 H-bomb (version 12) and its plans to replace the B61s now at Büchel and at NATO air bases in Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands and Turkey. Production of the B61-12 has been delayed recently by faulty components. The United States is the only country in the world that deploys its nuclear weapons in other countries.

“In view of the 2017 treaty ban, it’s clear the world wants to abolish nuclear weapons,” said John LaForge, coordinator of the delegation for a third time, and a staff member of the nuclear watchdog group Nukewatch, in Wisconsin, referring to the UN General Assembly vote to adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. “To spend tens of billions of dollars replacing the B61s instead of eliminating them, when tens of millions need disaster relief, food aid, housing, and medical care, is a criminal waste,” LaForge said.

The action camp is one of dozens of protests against Büchel’s US weapons which began March 26 and continue to August 9. Anti-nuclear activists with Germany’s nation-wide campaign council “Büchel is Everywhere! Nuclear Weapons-Free Now!” launched the 20-week-long series of nonviolent protests four years ago. The council is a coalition of 68 peace and justice organizations that have embraced nonviolent civil resistance at the base in order to achieve: 1) the withdrawal of the US nuclear bombs; 2) cancellation of replacement plans for the B61 bombs; and 3) Germany’s adoption of the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The actions continue through August 9, the 74^th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan in 1945.

Under a NATO policy called “nuclear sharing” the five NATO governments that deploy the U.S. B61s claim that their nuclear cooperation does not violate the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Articles I and II of the treaty prohibit nuclear weapons from being transferred to, or accepted from, other countries.

The delegation includes: Cee’Cee’ Anderson, of College Park, Georgia, with Georgia Woman’s Action for New Directions; Richard Bishop, from the Missoula, Montana Catholic Worker; Susan Crane, from the Redwood City, California Catholic Worker; Ralph Hutchison, Kevin Collins, Cindy Collins, with the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance in Knoxville, Tennessee; Dennis DuVall, formerly of Prescott, Arizona, with Veterans for Peace (now residing in Germany); Dr. Fred Galluccio from Newport Beach, California, with the Orange County Physicians for Social Responsibility; John LaForge, staff member with Nukewatch in Luck, Wisconsin; Andrew Lanier, Jr., with the San Jose, California Catholic Worker; and Brian Terrell, with Voices For Creative Nonviolence, who lives at the Strangers and Guests Catholic Worker Farm in Maloy, Iowa.

Germany’s Tactical Air Force Squadron 33 at Büchel carries out the formal “nuclear sharing agreement” between the United States and Germany, reportedly using its PA200 Tornado fighter jets to practice flying the US bombs to target areas for detonation in the event of an order from the White House.

* https://www.spangdahlem.af.mil/Units/702nd-Munitions-Support-Squadron/; and https://static.e-publishing.af.mil/production/1/shawafb/publication/shawafbi31-102/shawafbi31-102.pdf, see Sec. 4.7.1; and http://www.luftpost-kl.de/luftpost-archiv/LP_07/LP22207_031107.pdf

Originally published by Nuclear Resister.

This year’s 20-week campaign of nonviolent action demanding withdrawal of the estimated 20 U.S. nuclear weapons stockpiled in Germany is underway.

Social and peace action groups from across Germany and overseas have taken on days or a week of responsibility for maintaining regular protest at the gates of Büchel Air base, where the weapons are kept. Büchel is Everywhere, organizers of the annual campaign, have established a peace encampment nearby that provides logistical support for each group of activists.

On June 28, more than 40 people representing the Stop Ramstein Campaign (a base implicated in U.S. drone warfare) arrived to blockade the main gate. Two smaller groups separated and walked to block the two other gates into Büchel.

The base was totally blocked for about two hours on the unseasonably hot Friday afternoon, preventing commuting personnel from leaving for the weekend. Police eventually carried demonstrators off the road and conducted ID checks before they were free to go.

On Monday, June 24, Gerd Büntzly was fined following an appeal to 25 hours of daily wages. He had been convicted of trespass and property damage for cutting the fence and sitting-in atop a nuclear weapons bunker at Büchel air base in Germany in July 2017, with four American peace activists. The Americans have not been prosecuted despite presenting themselves in court with Büntzly. He chose to serve 10 days in jail in lieu of the fine.

For more information, visit buechel-atombombenfrei.jimdo.com.