A Message -

17 June 2006

From: MacGregor Eddy
 


On June 15, I was sentenced to two years probation, suspended jail time and a $2,500 fine for my arrest at Vandenberg Air Force Base during the Keep Space for Peace protest on October 8, 2005. Before sentencing I was allowed to make a statement and I chose to quote CG Weeramantry, world court judge and author of Armageddon or Brave New World? Reflections on the Hostilities in Iraq.

Your honor I went to Vandenberg to ask that our government respect international law. Here are the words of Judge Weeramantry, an expert in this area.

“Force, unilateral action, aggression, pre-emptive strikes and rejection of peaceful settlement of international disputes can then become the order of the day, legitimized by the actions of the most powerful members of the world community of nations and inviting other nations to do the same in they can. Force will then succeed law as the arbiter of that which is right or wrong and after millennia of human struggle leading upwards from the law of the jungle to the rule of law we would be back where we began…..While the brutalities of war are known to everyone and are flashed on television screens around the world, the devastation caused to the international legal system passes virtually unnoticed. Its twin towers of the United Nations and international law have suffered a frontal attack and this receives scant attention with no attempt to repair the damage."

Upholding international law is not just the responsibility of diplomats and judges, it is the job of ordinary citizens. As residents of the world power that is waging illegal and immoral wars of aggression, we have a heavy responsibility. When the United Nations, world opinion and international law have failed to stop these crimes there is nothing left but for us to act as individual members of civil society.

I want to thank all of the people who have given me encouragement, advice, money, and every kind of support. Because of you I knew I was not alone.

Yours in peace,

MacGregor Eddy

See www.vpeaceldf.org for details and Report on Sentencing



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