Thursday 23 July 2009

Four anti-war activists in prohibited military area

Four anti-war activists remain at large in the prohibited Shoalwater Bay Military Area for 8 days.

The Shoalwater area is presently hosting the $250 million Talisman Sabre exercises involving 18,000 US and 6,000 Australian troops.

The four are part of a group of seven activists who covertly entered the area last week with Cairns veteran protester, Brian Law.
Law, along with two others, has since been captured by the military and handed over to Police. The US and Australian military have been involved in offensive war game scenarios in the region over the last three weeks.
Some of the soldiers encountered by the activists were playing the roles of insurgents following an amphibious assault off the coast by US and Australian personnel.
Today the military are involved in exercises countering civil unrest of the occupied population.

Two of the activists, Yulangi Bardon and Emily Nielsen, pictured above on top of The Polygon spire inside the Shoalwater military area.
Jim Dowling and Culley Palmer also remain at large in the area after evading helicopter and dog searches.

"Since these exercises commenced a three weeks ago, 30 US, 18 British, an Australian soldier and countless Afghanis have been killed in combat in Afghanistan," Ciaron O'Reilly said from Rockhampton this afternoon.
"The Talisman Sabre exercises are dress rehearsals for more death and destruction, invasion and war."

1 comment:

Unknown said...

their message of peace is the ideal and right one, but dress rehearsals for more destruction? yes and no. i also see it as training and experience that will give my brother and his unit a chance of staying alive if they should ever be so unfortunate that politics dictates that they are the next load of brothers, fathers, sisters, and mothers mobilised to join the poor brave souls already stuck in one of this century's biggest piles of ....