By John LaForge
On May 8, the anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, eight war resisters entered the NATO airbase Büchel, south of Cologne, where the United States stations up to 20 of its thermonuclear gravity bombs. Trespass charges could result. The eight said they intended to interfere with construction work being done on the base’s runway in preparation for the delivery of new H-bombs from the United States. Sometime next year, new “B61-12” thermonuclear weapons are scheduled to replace the B61s currently stationed on the base. The participants, aged between 43 and 75 and from all over Germany, demanded an end to Büchel’s nuclear attack readiness (made explicit in NATO’s June 2022 “Strategic Concept”), which they point out violates the UN Charter and other international treaties. “Germany’s ‘nuclear sharing’ violates the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the human right to life,” said Miriam Menzel-Krämer, 58, from Aalen. “The risk of a nuclear war is already extremely high. Nuclear armament further aggravates the tensions in connection with the war in Ukraine and fuels the nuclear arms race in Europe,” said Gerd Büntzly, 73, a musician from Herford. — Büchel is Everywhere: Nuclear Weapons-Free Now!, May 8, 2023
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