Up and Atom: Winter 2007

Mildenhall Peace Camp

In August 2006 planes carrying bunker busters and cluster bombs began refuelling in the UK heading for Israel ready to drop on innocent people in Lebanon.

Activists gathered at USAF Mildenhall and it was decided we needed to monitor the plane movements in and out of the base.

Mildenhall peace camp was set up on a Sunday afternoon with a scramble to cordon off the site, put up Section 6 Notices and erect tents. This meant we were on the land under the 1971 Housing Act and that this was now our home!

It was in a pretty wooded area near the end of the runway. Our neighbours were armed guards on the other side of the barbed wire tipped, SOCPA protected fence. Later this was downgraded and the people on the other side of the wire seemed far less stressed by our presence…swapping their guns for cups of tea, we never did get to see the promised patrolling guard dogs though!

A wide range of people arrived at the Camp. There were ‘the usual suspects’ from various CND, Stop the War and Peace groups, there were also many individuals from across the region and beyond popping in for a day or staying for longer.

Especially encouraging was the number of local people who arrived to show support – many bearing gifts of food or the loan of practical things like solar lights, chairs and the offer of a place to take a shower or recharge mobile phones. One afternoon we were visited by Marcell, a passing taxi driver. Marcell popped in for a chat then popped home picked up his tent and returned to camp to stay for the duration. He had never even visited a peace camp before and now he was living in one!

Local teenagers came to find out why we were there. They continued to visit us and brought more friends to sit round the fire pit several evenings. Some of these amazing young people set up a youth CND group after the camp. Then there was the youth from the base who certainly had no ambitions to join the military – ‘Hey Mom we’re at the Peace Camp , it’s really rocking.’

There was excellent media coverage about the Camp and at times it felt like being part of a media scrum – especially on the setting up of the camp and the visit by CND chair Kate Hudson when the Base refused to receive a letter outlining concerns (but collected it from the Camp the following day). The Peace Camp was organised by Eastern Region CND and run on autonomous lines with a non violent and no-drink/drugs policy.

Visitors commented that it was the ‘prettiest’ peace camp that they had seen. Which is more than they could say about the fenced off neighbours!

Lebanon Facts

There has been much discussion about the conflict – who targets civilians etc. Rather than discussion we have decided to let the facts talk for themselves.

Civilians¹

Casualties include not only Lebanese and Israelis but also 8 Canadians and 6 Brazilians. According to the UN a third of the victims are children.

	Civilian	Military
Israel	39	82
Lebanon	1000	100
Lebanon	51	7

Nearly 1 million Lebanese have been displaced² and 300,000 Israelis have moved south from the border region³.

Hostages⁴

Israel has now kidnapped a quarter of the parliament elected by the Palestinians who join thousands of other Palestinians illegally kidnapped or imprisoned, including over 300 children.

Palestinian

Juveniles Imprisoned	342
Women Imprisoned	122
Men Imprisoned	9,477

Israeli

Men Imprisoned

3

¹ Reuters 2006-08-07, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Associated Press

² Reuters, August 3, 2006

³ The New York Times, July 31, 2006

⁴ Mandela Institute (http://www.mandela-palestine.org)

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