Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal – Büchel Is a Crime Scene

For decades, the United States military has deployed its nuclear weapons on German soil. Here in Büchel, the 702^nd Munitions Support Squadron is responsible for the deployment and threatened use of its “Priority Level One” stockpile of B61 gravity bombs.

We come from the United States and many other countries to the Büchel Air Base on this 10^th of July 2019 to bring a halt to the ongoing criminal conspiracy to commit war crimes using these weapons of mass destruction.

Each and every B61 nuclear bomb is designed and intended to unleash uncontrollable and indiscriminate heat, blast and radiation. Therefore, any planning, preparation, possession, deployment, threat or use of any variant of the B61 nuclear bombs, as a matter of fact, violates peremptory rules of law including the laws of war, the rules and principles of humanitarian law or the Nuremberg Principles.^[1] These weapons are a crime against humanity and the planet itself.

As an act of crime prevention and responsible citizenship, we are here to resist the ongoing unlawful conspiracy by the United States and German Air Forces to commit mass destruction. We are here on behalf of everyone who is unaware of the existential threat that such planning poses to life, liberty, and the planet Earth; who are unaware of the binding legal prohibitions that outlaw planning for nuclear war; or who feel powerless to take effective action against the Büchel Air Base’s criminal war planning.

We act in accordance with common humanitarian law, Treaties governing the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, and the authoritative opinion of the International Court of Justice, which says: “The Court recognizes…that the use of nuclear weapons could constitute a catastrophe for the environment. The Court also recognizes that the environment is not an abstraction but represents the living space, the quality of life and the very health of human beings, including generations unborn. …The destructive power of nuclear weapons cannot be contained in either space or time. They have the potential to destroy all civilization and the entire ecosystem of the planet.^[2]

For these reasons, guided by our conscience, the legal authority of the International Court of Justice, and the moral imperative to act residing in each person recognized by the Nuremberg principles, we call upon the personnel, powers and authorities at Büchel Air Base to take all such steps as are necessary to immediately stand down the US B61 nuclear weapons deployed there and to demand the permanent removal from sovereign German soil of these weapons of mass destruction.

Further, we call for these weapons to be returned to the United States of America from whence they came, to the Pantex facility in Amarillo, Texas, for immediate disassembly, dismantlement, and disposal.

[1] According to Professor of International Law Anabel L. Dwyer, University of Michigan: “The US, Germany and NATO know that each and every B61-3 and B61-4 nuclear bomb is designed and intended to unleash uncontrollable and indiscriminate heat, blast and radiation. The B61-3 is a 170-kiloton nuclear weapon. The B61-4 is a 50-kiloton weapon. Therefore, any planning, preparation, possession, deployment, threat or use of any variant of the B61 nuclear bomb, as a matter fact, violates peremptory rules of law including the laws of war, the rules and principles of humanitarian law or the Nuremberg Principles.”

[2] Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion of 8 July 1996, International Court of Justice, The Hague.