Today (9/10/14) 5 members of Stirling University CND attended the Police Station in Dunblane in order to report crimes committed by the British Government's nuclear weapons programme, Trident, and its intended replacement. 

Specifically this included breaches of the 1977 Geneva Protocol, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the International Criminal Court (Scotland) Act 2001. The United Kingdom is committed to disarming our nuclear weapons under these, and the maintenance and replacement of the current system breaks the law.

 

The police's attention was drawn to these acts and evidence of the crimes committed, including a motion that went before the House of Commons on the 14th March 2007 giving the government permission to pursue a replacement system, which Anne McGuire, MP for Stirling, voted in favour of.

 

This event follows on from others carried out in England and Wales throughout the early part of this year by Action AWE, another anti-nuclear weapons group that focuses on Britain's nuclear warhead factories near Reading, from where the weapons are driven through Stirling to Coulport, near Glasgow.

 

One of the delegation from Stirling University CND, Alasdair Ibbotson, said "It's important that the United Kingdom set an example- that international law cannot be disregarded with impunity when it suits us, and that the government is not above the laws made by it at Westminster. Nuclear weapons are illegal, and that's why we've come to report them as a crime".

 

In the event the police refused to accept the report and investigate whether a crime had been committed, stating that doing so was "not in their remit". A complaint has been lodged by a member of the group with Police Scotland, regarding the failure to accept the report, which may amount to misconduct.

 

Notes to Editors:

• Photographs available
• The action was carried out at 3pm in Dunblane Police Station.
• Further comment is available on request to stirunicnd@gmail.com, we will seek to get back to you within 12 hours. If you need a more urgent response, please call the group President, Alasdair Ibbotson, on 07856 749264.
• You can contact Action AWE at info@actionawe.org
• Scottish CND can be contacted by emailing scnd@banthebomb.org