Nuclear weapons violate international law. Here’s a protester’s strong statement.

It is well established that nuclear weapons violate international law.  An international court affirmed that in 1996.  Actually, even preparing for nuclear war violates the Nuremberg principles that the U.S. and the other victors in World War II established.

But the U.S. and eight other countries own nuclear weapons anyway.  And the U.S. has installed them in some of our NATO allies, including Germany, where Germany’s Buchel Air Force Base maintains several of the U.S.’s nuclear bombs and prepares constantly to drop them on Russia or another nation if the U.S. orders that.

For a number of years Europeans and Americans have protested at that German base against nuclear weapons.  On May 11, 2020, several persons — including one American veteran who belongs to Veterans for Peace — were convicted of a nonviolent protest action they conducted in July 2018 at Buchel.

Nukewatch Quaterly (www.nukewatchinfo.org) published a page 1 article about this, and it quoted Dennis DuVall, the 78-year-old American veteran who spoke to the judge who had convicted him.

According to Nukewatch, “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.”

The publication quoted DuVall saying this:

“Planning for nuclear war at Buchel AFB is a criminal conspirachy violating international law and the Nuremberg Principles.  … “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.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About GlenAnderson 1499 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org