Charges Dismissed Against Four Australians Who Resisted the War on Afghanistan

Ciaron O’Reilly <ciaronx@yahoo.com>

Wed, Jun 16, 2010

 

The charges against the Bonhoeffer Peace Collective - four Christian

peace activists who infiltrated the secret Australian military base on

Swan Island in March and shut down the switchboard, a satellite and

causing a lock down on the base, effectively disrupting the Australian

war effort in Afghanistan - have been dismissed. To quote one of the

Bonhoeffer 4 activists, Simon Reeves from court “Charges dismissed by

magistrate!! Magistrate agrees sanctity of life is more important than

unjust laws.” More information, including a link to the legislation

they were discharged under, is available at http://paceebene.org/blog/

jarrod-mckenna/breaking- news-charges-dismissed-magistrate-jarrodmckenna

 

Information about the Bonhoeffer 4 and their original press release

which we circulated in March 2010 is copied below.

 

Here is the media release from the Bonhoeffer Peace Collective, four

Christian peace activists who yesterday morning infiltrated the secret

Australian military base on Swan Island  - after swimming to the

island at 5.30am, they spent several hours on the base shutting down

the switchboard, a satellite and causing a lock down on the base,

effectively disrupting the Australian war effort in Afghanistan. The

four were charged with trespass. There is a video of the Bonhoeffer

Peace Collective explaining their action at http://paceebene.

org/blog/ jarrod-mckenna/breaking-news-bonhoeffer-activists-

secret-military-base-now

 

-------

 

Activists breach secret military base

 

Media release: The Bonhoeffer Peace Collective

 

31 March 2010

 

At 6am this morning, four Christian peace activists entered Swan

Island, one of Australia’s most secret military installations near

Queenscliff, Victoria, seeking to disrupt the war in Afghanistan.

 

“Both Swan Island and the war on Afghanistan are out of sight, out of

mind. It’s time to end further suffering of the Afghan people and our

soldiers by bringing our troops home,” the group said.

 

Swan Island is a highly secretive military installation used by the

Army’s elite Special Air Service (SAS) and the Australian Secret

Intelligence Service (ASIS). Swan Island is said to be more secretive

than Pine Gap in central Australia.

 

“In the week before the first Easter, Jesus blockaded the temple and

turned the tables inside.   Today we are imitating Jesus’ disruption”,

 the group said. “Sometimes you have to get in the way of injustice”.

 

“War can’t bring peace, it can only bring further terror, death and

poverty,” the group said.

 

Rev. Simon Moyle (Baptist Minister), Jacob Bolton (Community Worker),

Jessica Morrison (University Lecturer) and Simon Reeves (Social

Worker) have called themselves the Bonhoeffer Peace Collective after

Kevin Rudd’s favorite theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was also an

antiwar activist.

 

“The followers of Christ have been called to peace. And they must not

only have peace but also make it. His disciples keep the peace by

choosing to endure suffering themselves rather than inflict it on

others. In so doing they overcome evil with good, and establish the

peace of God in the midst of a world of war and hate.”- Dietrich

Bonhoeffer

--