Margaretta D’Arcy and Niall Farrell’s incursion onto the runway at Shannon Airport on 7th October 2012. Shanonwatch
“This is not a regular airport,” Margaretta D’Arcy said to me as we heard a C-130T Hercules prepare to take off from Shannon Airport in Ireland after 3 p.m. on September 11, 2022. That enormous U.S. Navy aircraft (registration number 16-4762) had flown in from Sigonella, a US Naval Air Station in Italy. A few minutes earlier, a US Navy C-40A (registration number 16-6696) left Shannon for the US military base at Stuttgart, Germany, after flying in from Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia. Shannon is not a regular airport, D’Arcy said, because while it is merely a civilian airport, it allows bieži US military planes to fly in and out of it, with Gate 42 of the airport functioning as its “forward operating base.”
88 gadu vecumā D'Arsija, kas ir leģendāra īru aktrise un dokumentālo filmu veidotāja, ir regulāra dalībniece Shannonwatch, kurā ietilpst aktīvistu grupa, kas kopš 2008. gada ikmēneša vigīlijas rīkoja apļveida krustojumā netālu no lidostas. Shannonwatch's mērķi are to “end U.S. military use of Shannon Airport, to stop rendition flights through the airport, and to obtain accountability for both from the relevant Irish authorities and political leaders.” Edward Horgan, a veteran of the Irish military who had been on peacekeeping missions to Cyprus and Palestine, told me that this vigil is vital. “It’s important that we come here every month,” he said, “because without this there is no visible opposition” to the footprint of the US military in Ireland.
Saskaņā ar Shannonwatch ziņojumu ar nosaukumu "Šenonas lidosta un 21st gadsimta karš,” the use of the airport as a US forward operating base began in 2002-2003, and this transformation “was, and still is, deeply offensive to the majority of Irish people.”
29 pants no Īrijas konstitūcija 1937. gada noteikumi nosaka valsts neitralitātes sistēmu. Atļaujot ārvalstu militārpersonām izmantot Īrijas zemi, tiek pārkāpts 2. pants Hāgas konvencija of 1907, to which Ireland is a signatory. Nonetheless, said John Lannon of Shannonwatch, the Irish government has allowed almost 3 million U.S. troops to pass through Shannon Airport since 2002 and has even assigned a permanent staff officer to the airport. “Irish airspace and Shannon Airport became the virtual property of the US war machine,” said Niall Farrell of Galway Alliance Against War. “Irish neutrality was truly dead.”
Pitstop of death
Margaretta D’Arcy’s eyes gleam as she recounts her time at the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, located in Berkshire, England, and involving activists from Wales, who set up to prevent the storage and passage of US cruise missiles at this British military base. That camp sākās 1981. gadā un ilga līdz 2000. gadam. Šīs cīņas laikā D'Arsija trīs reizes nonāca cietumā (no kopumā vismaz 20 reizēm viņa atradās cietumā par savu pretkara aktivismu). "Tas bija labi," viņa man teica, "jo mēs atbrīvojāmies no ieročiem un zeme tika atjaunota cilvēkiem. Pagāja 19 gadi. Sievietes konsekventi cīnījās, līdz saņēmām to, ko gribējām. Kad D'Arsiju arestēja, cietuma vadība viņu izģērba, lai pārmeklētu. Viņa atteicās uzvilkt drēbes un pieteica gan badastreiku, gan kailu protestu. To darot, viņa piespieda cietuma vadību pārtraukt kratīšanas ar svītrām. "Ja jūs rīkojaties cienīgi, tad jūs piespiežat viņus izturēties pret jums ar cieņu," viņa teica.
Part of this act of dignity includes refusing to allow her country’s airport to be used as part of the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Since 2002, several brave people have entered the airport and have attempted to deface US aircraft. On September 5, 2002, Eoin Dubsky krāsots "Nevar būt” on a US warplane (for which he was fined); and then on January 29, 2003, Mary Kelly took an axe onto the runway and hit a military plane, causing $1.5 million in damage; she was also fined. A few weeks later, on February 3, 2003, the Pitstop Ploughshares (a group of five activists who belonged to the Catholic Worker Movement) attacked a US Navy C-40 aircraft—the same one that Mary Kelly had previously damaged—with hammers and a pickaxe (a story atceras spilgti Harijs Brauns iekšā Īri kaluši, 2008). Viņi arī krāsoja ar aerosolu "Nāves pitstops” uz angāra.
2012. gadā Margareta D'Arsija un Nialls Farels devās gājienā uz the runway to protest the airport being used by US planes. Arrested and convicted, they nonetheless atgriezās to the runway the next year in orange jumpsuits. During the court proceedings in June 2014, D’Arcy grilled the airport authorities about why they had not arrested the pilot of an armed US Hercules plane that had arrived at Shannon Airport four days after their arrest on the runway. She jautāja, "Vai ir divi noteikumu kopumi — viens tādiem cilvēkiem kā mēs, kuri cenšas apturēt spridzināšanu, un otrs bumbvedējiem?" Šenonas lidostas inspektors Pats O'Nīls atbildēja: "Es nesaprotu jautājumu."
"Šī ir civilā lidosta," D'Arsija man teica, kad viņa norādīja uz skrejceļu. "Kā valdība ļauj militārpersonām izmantot civilo lidostu?"
Extraordinary renditions
The US government began illegally transporting prisoners from Afghanistan and other places to its prison in the Guantánamo Bay detention camp and to other “melnās vietnes” in Europe, North Africa, and West Asia. This act of transporting the prisoners came to be known as “extraordinary rendition.” In 2005, when Dermot Ahern, Ireland’s minister for foreign affairs, was asked about the “extraordinary rendition” flights into Shannon Airport, he teica, "Ja kādam ir pierādījumi par kādu no šiem lidojumiem, lūdzu, zvaniet man, un es to nekavējoties izmeklēšu." Amnesty International atbildēja, ka tai ir tieši pierādījumi, ka līdz sešām CIP nomātajām lidmašīnām Šenonas lidostu ir izmantojušas aptuveni 50 reizes. Pēc četriem gadiem Amnesty International sagatavoja pamatīgu ziņot that showed that their earlier number was deflated and that likely hundreds of such US military flights had flown in and out of the airport.
Lai gan Īrijas valdība gadu gaitā ir teikusi, ka tā iebilst Šīs prakses dēļ Īrijas policija (Garda Síochána) nav iekāpusi šajos lidojumos, lai tos pārbaudītu. Kā parakstītājs Eiropas Cilvēktiesību konvencija (parakstīts 1953. gadā) un Apvienoto Nāciju Organizācijas Konvencija pret spīdzināšanu un citu nežēlīgu, necilvēcīgu vai pazemojošu apiešanos vai sodīšanu (adopted in 1984 and ratified in 1987), Ireland is duty-bound to prevent collaboration with “extraordinary rendition,” a position taken by the Īrijas Pilsoņu brīvību padome. 2014. gadā Īrijas parlamentārieši Miks Volless un Klēra Deilija bija arestēts at Shannon Airport for trying to search two US aircraft that they believed were carrying “troops and armaments.” They were frustrated by the Irish government’s false assurances. “How do they know? Did they search the planes? Of course not,” Wallace and Daly said.
Tikmēr saskaņā ar Shannonwatch ziņot, “Rather than take measures to identify past involvement in rendition or to prevent further complicity, successive Irish [g]overnments have simply denied any possibility that Irish airports or airspace were used by US rendition planes.”
2006. gadā Konors Kregans brauca ar velosipēdu netālu no Šenonas lidostas. Lidostas policijas inspektore Liliana O'Šī, kas viņu atpazina no protestiem, stājās viņam pretī, bet Kregans devās prom. Galu galā viņš tika arestēts. Kregana tiesā O'Šī atļauts ka policijai tika likts apstāties un uzmākties aktīvistiem lidostā. Zoe Lawlor no Shannonwatch man pastāstīja šo stāstu un pēc tam teica: "Tāda uzmākšanās kā šī pastiprina mūsu protesta nozīmi."
In 2003 and 2015, Sinn Féin—the largest opposition party in the Northern Ireland Assembly—put forward a Neitralitātes rēķins neitralitātes jēdzienu iekļaut Īrijas konstitūcijā. Valdība, teica Šons Krovs no Sinn Féin ir "pa gabalu pārdevis Īrijas neitralitāti pretēji cilvēku vēlmēm". Ja Īrijas iedzīvotāji pieņems neitralitātes ideju, tas būs tādu cilvēku upuru dēļ kā Margareta D'Arsija, Nialls Farels un Mērija Kellija.
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