Karen Fallon, a resident of Faslane Peace Camp, is one of the five activists who as part of the ongoing resistance at Shannon airport in Ireland, peacefully disarmed a US warplane that was headed for Iraq. Within the month, 3 of the 4 companies that were contracted for the war against Iraq, to ferry US troops and weapons, had left Ireland.
In the early hours of Monday 3rd February, the five activists cut their way into Shannon Airport, County Clare. They constructed a shrine on the runway to Iraqi children killed and threatened by U.S./British bombardment and sanctions. They then began to take up the runway, working on its edge with a mattock. The activists approached the hanger housing the US Navy plane which had just finished undergoing repair. They painted "Pit stop of death" on the hanger's roller door, and began the dismantling of the hanger. Others including Karen, entered the hanger to disarm the repaired US warplane.
The five activists were arrested by Gardai and held in Limerick Prison. Karen served 3 months in jail, and as with the other four activists, she is currently out of prison but under strict bail conditions. Under these bail conditions Karen has to remain in Dublin until the trial, which is likely to be early 2004. All the five activists are facing the possibility of a max 10 year sentence. Justice needs to be reached in court so that Karen is found NOT GUILTY and can return home. The war was illegal, not Karen's actions.
Karen Fallon (31), from Scotland, has lived at Faslane Peace Camp for the last two years. She is a scientist and a Trident Ploughshares pledger. Letters can be sent directly to Karen Fallon at Antigin, Kelly's Town, Ransboro, Sligo, Eire.
Karen also needs urgent donations for her legal and living costs.Donations in pounds sterling can be made payable to "Karen Fallon", c/o Roz, Talamh Housing Co-op, Birkhill House, Coalburn, South Lanarkshire, ML11 0NJ.
By locking up your body they think to lock up your mind and dampen that "passion" which so offended by having the audacity to take a stand and say "NO" to their lies.
Well the de-humanising process does not work. The same people who make the
law, break the law and lie. They are also the people who believe that locking
people up 22 hours a day and allowing them to be treated as "illiterate
dregs" of society will rehabilitate them to the "program".
It does not work.
The process of my incarceration reaffirms my beliefs and justifies my struggle
for a more peaceful world and an end to war.
To be held as a "criminal" by a Neutral Government which knowingly
opted to be complicit in an illegal war whilst breaking its own laws/Constitution
should cause more damage and embarrassment to them than I ever could.
Watching the farcical war on Iraq unfold from a prison cell whilst being held
by such a government does not deny your freedom, it intensifies it. Blessed
are the Peacemakers - for we shall lock them up!
The care support and solidarity that we receive in prison, compassion from
complete strangers who also wish for peace, free's our spirits and our conscience.
Can the Government say the same? I think not.
Any democratic power which goes to war or is complicit in the preparation
or support to a war against the will of its people creates its own prison.
A prison of lies, deceit, hypocrisy and associated murder, a prison without
walls, a prison of its honesty. As impotent as I feel against the impending
war I know within myself that I am not alone. There are thousands of us the
world over in jail and on the streets doing everything for peace.
My liberty was given up in protest against war in a fight for peace. Although
my body is in prison my conscience is clear and my mind is free!
Can the US British and Irish Governments say the same in all honesty? I think
not. The International Court against War Crimes has just been established
in the Hague. The US Government refuses to acknowledge it as do many others.
The US and UK are still accountable for their actions in this war and may
find themselves appearing before this court in due course along with all collaborators.
Think on it!
Karen, Limerick Prison, 20th March 2003