Gerd Büntzly, Crime Fighter
Posted
By John Laforge On January 25, 2019 @ 1:56 am In
articles 2015 |
Photo by
John LaForge: International youth group blockades one of three main gates to
Buchel Air Force in Germany, July 2018.
Hamburg, Germany
I was
with Gerd Büntzly, 69, of Herford, in a demonstration in Germany July 17, 2017.
So were Steve Baggarly, Susan Crane, and Bonnie Urfer, all of the United
States. Ours was a peaceful if covert, night-time occupation of a protected
aircraft shelter or bomb bunker far inside the Büchel Air Force Base, near the
beautiful Mosel River valley.
We were
there to help prevent the unlawful use of the shelter in nuclear attacks or
nuclear war preparations. Routine nuclear war planning by US and German Air
Force personnel there, using US B61 nuclear bombs (NATO’s so-called “nuclear
sharing”), violates the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)
and several other international treaties, all binding on the United States and
Germany.
In spite
of our formal complaint to state prosecutors against “selective prosecution” of
Gerd, and the violation of his “equal protection” rights, only he was charged,
tried, and convicted of trespass and property damage (for clipping fences) in
January last year. This Jan. 16, he was in court again appealing the
conviction. Susan Crane from California and I travelled to Koblenz to speak on
his behalf. Attorneys were quite sure that we two could testify, but ultimately
were not allowed.
We wanted to explain that
international law has the force of state and federal law in Germany and the
United States, a fact recognized by Germany’s Constitution (Art. 25) and the US
Constitution (Art. 6). According to Univ. of Illinois Law School Prof. Francis
Boyle, writing recently for other nuclear weapons resisters, “International law
is not ‘higher’ or separate law; it is part and parcel of the structure of
federal law. The Supreme Court so held in the landmark decision in The Paquete
Habana (1900), that was recently reaffirmed in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, in 2006.”
Contrary to modern military strategists, there is no such thing as a “limited
nuclear war.” Nuclear weapons only produce massacres. Beginning with 8 to 10
million degrees at detonation, followed by indiscriminate mass destruction from
blast effects, city-size mass fires (firestorms) in which nothing survives, and
uncontrollable radiation poisoning that produces genetic damage unlimited by
space or time, nuclear weapons are just massacre delivery systems.
International
law has prohibited the planning and not just the commission of such massacres
since 1946.
Professor
Boyle wrote last November 1st: “The Judgment of the Nuremberg International
Military Tribunal meted out severe punishment in 1946 against individuals who,
acting in full compliance with domestic law but in disregard of the limitations
of international law, had committed war crimes and crimes against peace as
defined in its Charter.”
The
Nuremberg Charter and Principles apply to individual civilians like us and
oblige individuals to disobey domestic laws that protect government crimes. And
Nuremberg prohibits all “planning and preparation” of wars that violate
international treaties.
The 1949
Geneva Conventions prohibit indiscriminate attacks on noncombatants, attacks on
neutral states, and long-term damage to the environment. The 1907 Hague
Conventions forbid the use of poison and poisoned weapons under any
circumstances.
Under the
1970 NPT, it is prohibited for Germany to receive nuclear weapons from the
United States and for the US to transfer them to Germany. Germany and the
United States are both formal state parties to all of these Treaties.
“By
implication,” Boyle explains, “the Nuremberg Judgment privileges all citizens
of nations engaged in war crimes to act in a measured but effective way to
prevent the continuing commission of those crimes. The same Nuremberg Privilege
is recognized in Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of
Justice which has been adopted as a Treaty (the United Nations Charter) by the
United States” [and Germany]. In my opinion, such action certainly includes
nonviolent exposure and inspection of sites of ongoing war crimes.”
Because
nuclear weapons cannot be used without violating these binding international
treaties; since Germany and United States at Büchel are planning and preparing
war that violates these treaties; and because the Nuremberg Charter and
Principles forbid this planning and preparation, and apply to civilians and
military personnel alike, and hold citizens individually responsible; and
require citizens to disobey illegal orders, to refuse participation in or
ignore international crimes, civil resistance at Büchel is no offense but a
civic duty, a lawful obligation, and an act of crime prevention.
In the courtroom, crowded with 40
people, the three-person “bench” (two lay volunteers and one criminal court judge)
found Gerd guilty — but reduced his fine from 1,200 Euros to 750 — after making
a yawning apology for “deterrence.” Prescient as ever, Professor Boyle’s latest
book is, “The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence” (Clarity Press 2013).
Article
printed from www.counterpunch.org: https://www.counterpunch.org
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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