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First US Citizen Convicted for Protests at Nuclear Weapons Base in Germany

L to R: Dennis DuVall, Chris Danowski, and Susan van der Hijden, before their trial in Cochem District Court in Germany. Photo by Marion Küpker.
By John LaForge
Nukewatch Quarterly Summer 2020

COCHEM, Germany — A US Air Force veteran of the US war in Vietnam and two other nuclear weapons protesters were found guilty of trespassing and damage to property in Cochem District Court May 11, 2020, as a result of July 2018 protest action at Germany’s Büchel Air Force Base, where the United States positions 20 of its nuclear bombs and where German pilots train to use them in possible attacks against Russia.

Dennis DuVall, 78, a long-time member of Veterans for Peace from Arizona and now living in Dresden, Germany, became the first US citizen prosecuted in Germany for civil resistance against the threatened use of the US nuclear weapons. (US Catholic Priest Carl Kabat was thrown out of Germany for a disarmament action against US Pershing missiles deployed there in the 1980s.)

There have been repeated arrests and detentions of US citizens during protests at the Büchel base since 2017, but no charges have been brought to trial until now. Also convicted by Cochem District Court Judge Andre Zimmermann were Susan van der Hijden, 51, from Amsterdam’s Catholic Worker House in The Netherlands, and Chris Danowski, 50, from Dortmund, Germany, a founder of the Hamburg Catholic Worker. The judge sentenced all three to fines equivalent to 30 times their daily income plus court costs. The fines ranged from 150 to 900 Euros ($165 to $990). Refusing to pay could see the defendants jailed for up to 30 days.

The three were among 18 war resisters — seven from the US, six from Germany, four from The Netherlands, and one from England — that gained entry to the base in five groups and in broad daylight on Sunday, July 15, 2018, after cutting five separate holes through its perimeter fence. Three others among the 18 were convicted of similar charges in January, and three are scheduled for trial in June.

In his defense, DuVall read a detailed statement which was in turn read to the judge by an interpreter. DuVall focused on international treaty law that forbids any planning and preparation of mass destruction. In particular, DuVall reminded the court that the Nuremberg Charter and Principles have established individual responsibility for violations of laws of war. “Planning for nuclear war at Büchel AFB is a criminal conspiracy violating international law and the Nuremberg Principles,” he said. DuVall also said in part, “While weapons of mass murder have found their way into the arsenals of nine nations, international law has not found its way into the courtroom.” And in a rebuke of the court’s silence on the question of unlawful war planning going on within Judge Zimmermann’s jurisdiction, DuVall said, “At the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Auschwitz survivor Batsheva Dagan could also have been thinking about Büchel when she asked, ‘Where was the world [which] did nothing?’ ”

DuVall, van der Hijden and Danowski all admitted going into the base, but said that the stationing of US nuclear weapons there was illegal under US, German, and international law, making their action one of crime prevention. In her testimony, Susan van der Hijden asked the court, “Are fences more important than human lives?”

The court found the three guilty of the charges based solely on allegations made by the state prosecutor, without the use of a single witness. The procedure surprised defendants and observers from countries where charging documents are not considered evidence. In explaining his verdicts and the penalties, Judge Zimmermann drew guffaws from the gallery by twice comparing fencing around nuclear weapons to a fence around a garden where, he said, no one would like to have a hole cut. After trial, peace activist Hops Hossbach, of Greifenstein, Germany, noticed Judge Zimmermann in his open courthouse office and walked in to lambast the comparison. “It’s not the fence which is at issue,” Hossbach told the judge, “it’s what’s going on behind the fence.”

The 2018 protest was just one among dozens in a years-long campaign of nonviolent resistance against the 20 US “B61-3” and “B61-4” nuclear bombs stationed at Büchel. Pilots from Germany’s 33rd Tactical Air Force Squadron or Wing at Büchel routinely train in German Tornado jet fighters to detonate the US H-bombs against areas in Russia — in the event they are ordered to do so by a US president. The German base is also home to the US Air Force’s 702 Munitions Support Squadron, which maintains the 20 Cold War-era “dumb” nuclear bombs it calls a “Protection Level 1 Resource.” The US H-bombs are reportedly set to be replaced in the coming years in spite of massive public opposition in Germany and in violation of the 1970 Treaty on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

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Supporting the UN Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons

The global majority supports nuclear abolition. Depicted is the population size of the 37 countries that have ratified the UN Nuclear Treaty Ban as of May 2020. Once 50 countries have ratified the treaty, it will enter into force. Graphic by Laura Gauger.

Editor’s note: The year 2020 was anticipated to be a rousing year for anti-nuclear activism. The Treaty on Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Review conference was to be held in New York with massive events planned. This year marks both the 75th anniversary of the Trinity, Hiroshi­ma and Nagasaki bombings, as well as the 40th anniversary of the Churchrock radioactive tailings spill, with many associated events worldwide. Most of the events planned have been postponed or gone on-line due to the coronavirus. Yet, our work continues.

The NPT Review Conference was held virtually with over 600 participants worldwide including many who would not have been able to travel to attend the conference and with interpretation into other languages (unlike the actual conference which is only held in English). Now organizers have one more year to pressure their governments to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons before the rescheduled NPT Review Conference.

The Campaign Nonviolence National Conference scheduled for August 6-9, 2020 has also gone vir­tual. See paceebene.org/cnvconference2020.

By Steve McKeown
Nukewatch Quarterly Summer 2020

This coming August the National Veterans for Peace (VFP) Convention was to be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Trinity bomb test in New Mexi­co. The theme of the convention was to be “Human Rights over Nuclear Might.” A demonstration was planned for the nuclear weapons lab in nearby Los Alamos.

Veterans for Peace set sail for Japan last year in their sailboat, the Golden Rule, to be present for the 75th anniversary. The Golden Rule is the same boat that a group of Quakers tried to sail to the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean to protest US nuclear testing in 1958. However, the Coast Guard inter­vened, and the crew spent 60 days in jail. Several years ago VFP obtained the boat, restored it, and began sailing up and down the West Coast to draw support and educate for nuclear abolition.

This May, Nukewatch, Nuclear Resister, and the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance were planning on hosting a large conference in Maryville, Tennessee to strategize for nuclear abolition and to promote the United Nations (UN) Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

By March, the End War Committee consisting of our local chapter of VFP and Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) had collected 23,000 signatures on paper petitions calling on Minnesota’s congressional delegation to support the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) from all of the 851 incorporated towns and cities in Minnesota. The End War Committee was beginning to make appointments with elected officials to deliv­er the petitions and ask for their commitment.

Then came the coronavirus pandemic, and despite President Trump’s claims—cases would “go back to zero by April,” it was “under control,” and would “go away like a miracle”— the virus continued its devastating march across the country. It has affected all aspects of life, including plans that many peace people had for nuclear disarmament education, and garnering support for the UN Treaty.

The VFP National Convention was changed and will be conducted on-line with no demonstration at Los Alamos. The Golden Rule made it to Hawaii, but is not going on to Japan this year. The nuclear disarma­ment conference in Tennessee was canceled. Our End War Committee had to halt its signature collecting and postpone making appointments with legislators.

However, the VFP Convention has been scheduled to take place in Albuquerque in 2021. The Golden Rule did sail around the Hawaiian Islands making many stops before the pandemic, taking 9th graders on a ride, and being welcomed by the Honolulu city council, which adopted a resolution in support of the UN Treaty Ban. No doubt the Golden Rule will sail again. Our End War Committee will make ap­pointments soon, and we are promoting phone calls to lawmakers, the media, and our community. As Nukewatch has said, “Our work goes on unabated.”

These are examples of only a few of the hundreds of organizations that are working to support the UN Treaty Ban. On May 19, Belize ratified the Treaty. This means 37 nations have now ratified, and it only needs 13 more to reach the 50 necessary to enter into force and become international law, thus stigmatizing the nine nuclear-armed nations: the US, Russia, China, France, the UK, Israel, Pakistan, India, and North Korea.

In this time of Covid-19, demonstrations for nuclear abolition are hard to pull off. Nukewatch’s regular readers don’t need to be reminded of the Doomsday Clock being set at 90 seconds to midnight to contin­ue working for nuclear disarmament. The political aspect should not be ignored, even though the will is certainly not there on the part of “the powers that be”—which is all the more compelling a reason to be engaged with any and all of our public officials. One step to take would be to call your US Senators to support the UN Treaty. This is a simple yet necessary step as they are the ones who would ratify the Treaty. I was collecting signatures at a talk given by a UN of­ficial in St. Paul, and one of Minnesota Senator Tina Smith’s aides signed the petition and gave me her card without my soliciting it to set up a meeting. We have since met with her, and we were well received.

Lastly, when we went around the whole state of Minnesota to county fairs, American Legions, VFWs, church suppers, schools, trailer courts, and most every imaginable business, and even taking our VFP Peace Bus on the road, you can be sure the conversa­tion didn’t stop there. It is not an exaggeration to say that over 100,000 people discussed the issue of nu­clear disarmament one way or another. Most people like the idea of a treaty for all countries, and each one of us needs to continue the multiplier effect of shin­ing the light on this critical issue so our politicians won’t have to stay in the dark any longer.

— Steve McKeown is co-founder of the Minneap­olis/St. Paul Veterans for Peace, Chapter 27. He traveled the entire state of Minnesota for two years obtaining signatures on the petition urging the US to ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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Majority of Millennials Support Banning Nuclear Weapons

Nukewatch Quarterly Summer 2020

The majority of young people around the world support banning nuclear weapons, according to a new poll commissioned by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The poll surveyed over 16,000 millennials (aged 20-35) across 16 countries and territories (Afghanistan, Colombia, France, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Occupied Palestinian territory, Syria, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States) in 2019.

The use of nuclear weapons is “never acceptable” in wars or armed conflicts, say 84% of respondents. Support for this statement remains strong in nuclear-armed countries; 77% of in Israel, 81% in France, 86% in Russia, 83% in the United Kingdom, and 73% in the United States responded that nuclear bomb use in wars or armed conflicts is never acceptable. An even greater percentage of those surveyed in some countries find that the use of nuclear weapons is “never acceptable”—92% in Switzerland and 98% in Syria.

“The next generation has spoken: they don’t want nuclear weapons in their future,” said Alicia Sanders-Zakre, ICAN Policy and Research Coordinator, in response to the poll. “Today’s leaders should take heed and join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as a first step towards a nuclear-weapon-free future.”

—ICAN

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Nuclear Convoys Roll across UK

Nukewatch Quarterly Summer 2020

British nuclear war readiness has faced decades of protest. Some groups focus on the dangerous convoys that move warheads and related materials along regular roads passing through dozens of villages. The convoys are tracked by campaigners, photographed and filmed for social media, and regularly stopped by protesters. The UK routinely moves nuclear warheads to and from their final assembly point in Burghfield, England, and the Royal Naval Armaments Depot in Coulport, Scotland—eight miles from the Faslane Trident submarine base. At Coulport, the warheads are loaded onto US missiles—leased to the British Navy by the US—that arm its four Trident submarines.

A warhead convoy passed through the countryside May 13, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Nukewatch UK and Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (SCND). The massive highway transports include up to 20 police vehicles, and at least 50 personnel, raising fears of Covid-19 spreading to and from the Scottish bases. Jane Tallents of Nukewatch UK, said May 13, “It is never right to possess and deploy nuclear weapons and to transport them on public roads. Doing it right now is completely irresponsible.” SCND chair Lynn Jamieson said, “The transport of nuclear bombs across the English-Scottish border is always an unnecessary journey against the will of the majority of people living in Scotland … risking a catastrophic accident.”

—Nukewatch UK, and Scottish CND, May 13, 2020; & Morning Star, Dec. 13, 2019

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Gone Viral

By Mark Taylor

Through the Prism of Nonviolence

By John Heid
Nukewatch Quarterly Summer 2020

TUSCON, Arizona—May 9, 2020, the 99th anniversary of Dan Berrigan’s birth

A half century ago this month Daniel Berrigan, S.J., wrote America Is Hard to Find: Notes from the Underground and Letters from Danbury Prison, Doubleday & Co. 1972.

At the time he was underground. Dan and eight others—the Catonsville 9—had been convicted of multiple felonies for burning draft card files in resistance to the US War in Vietnam. He chose to continue his resistance by surreptitiously appearing at anti-war events rather than willingly submit to imprisonment. “On the lam” for four months, Dan spoke publicly, albeit clandestinely, and wrote ferociously. The times were as volatile as the fire. Dan, his brother, Phil and seven others burned hundreds of 1-A draft files. His reflections during this period offered an incisive lens into American culture. That lens, looked through 50 years later, is still acute, clarion.

Why is America still so hard to find? What is America anyway?  Dan understood the symbiotic relationship between war and the state of our nation, any nation. He also recognized an antidote: resistance. People power.

War is antithetical to Civil Society. It blurs our visibility, let alone our humanity. What has changed in a half century? What hasn’t? Today we find ourselves in the grip of a microscopic virus that rivals the size of the split atom. Suddenly our world is turned upside down. It’s become a heyday for doomsday prophets, and profiteers, a free-for-all for conspiracy theorists. Rumor, prediction, and fact have become a sordid ménage à trois.

Meanwhile America and much of the world is “doing time” above ground, and staying at home—those who have one. Will the flippant quip “gone viral” ever sound the same? How can our war machine state save us from what we cannot even see without a microscope? Guns, let alone nuclear weapons, are rendered powerless.

An insight I gleaned from Dan’s youngest brother, Phil, was to pay attention to the larger context of any political moment. Phil said he learned this lesson during the Vietnam War, when most eyes were understandably focused on Southeast Asia. Behind the scene, the US stealthily built up its nuclear arsenal. Thus follows my query: what’s behind the Covid-19 curtain?

For one, the Tucson-based corporation Raytheon Missiles and Defense secured a multi-billion dollar contract to develop the next generation of air-launched and nuclear-armed missiles—at the height of the pandemic.

The coronavirus is unarguably a major health crisis. Still, in terms of casualties, it amounts to a dress rehearsal to nuclear war. There are ways to minimize the impact of the virus. There is no quarantine from nuclear weapons detonations, no safe space, not even deep in the high-tech bunker at Offutt Air Force Base. There will eventually be a vaccine for Covid-19. There is no cure for nuclear war, only prevention through abolition. The virus has become a partisan issue. Nuclear weapons have bipartisan support. In dystopian terms they are the great equalizer. No one is immune. No one gets out alive.

A pandemic allows us, or perhaps forces us, to recognize our vulnerability, our interdependence. Granted, those with more privilege suffer less in a pandemic. Not so with nuclear war. While our eyes are focused on a cure to resolve our current crisis, another is looming backstage. One might ask, Why isn’t the US government investing in a multi-billion dollar research for this pandemic rather than in so-called nuclear security?

There are many smoke screens, so much government subterfuge. Small wonder the heart of America is hard to find. There are war contractor coffers to fill. The heart of America is not underground in resistance. No, it’s at large, in plain sight. We are a nation of nuclear war deniers.

Following his imprisonment for the Catonsville 9 action, Dan Berrigan continued his strident resistance to the US militarism, particularly nuclearism, in the streets, in the dock, in jail cells. Nevermore underground. He took his life-long search for America to the grave, and by example urges us to carry on the struggle for disarmament—of ourselves, of fear, of nukes. Only then will we find the heart of America.

 — John Heid is a humanitarian aid activist living in Tucson, Arizona

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