Flying in the face of the law?

High Court ruling may determine the next move

IT’S 1.30am on Sunday morning. The Shannon airport police van approaches at speed, emergency lights flashing.

Even before it screeches to a halt just inches from two peace camp residents, an airport police officer jumps out and blocks the way.

The peace campaigners had been on plane watching duty just outside the airport’s perimeter fence when an American Trans Air (ATA) flight touched down and taxied towards the terminal. ATA, are one of the main airlines chartered by the US to ferry its troops and equipment to the Gulf.

But the activists are firmly turned back. Refused permission to proceed to the terminal building to get a better view, they are shadowed all the way back to their camp by airport police.

On this occasion there are no troops - one of the few nights in recent weeks when the US flights arrive empty. The flights are probably returning from Kuwait given the Kuwait T-shirts sported by the ATA pilots who booked into a Shannon hotel early Sunday morning.

As anti-war sentiment grows, the authorities have so far refused to address the issue of US military flights at Shannon.

The Government is unfased by mounting criticism of the movement of troops and munitions through Shannon.

So too were the gardaí and airport police during Saturday’s 1,700 strong demonstration when a small defiant figure asked for a megaphone and pushed her way to the front.

Iraqi citizen, Nuria Mustafa, clutching her three-year-old daughter, Bushra, had had enough.

“I don’t understand how you can stand here putting American troops in there who are preparing for war, to kill, and you will not allow me to walk in there and protest against the people who are killing my people in Iraq,” she shouted at the gardaí who struggled not to make eye contact with her.

“You are going to be complicit in this. I have spoken with a few of you and I know you care,” she shouted.

Given that most Iraqis never speak out publicly, for fear of what may happen to relatives and loved ones, it was an extraordinarily defiant and brave gesture.

As activists voiced their opposition, bemused airport staff gathered at the second floor windows laughing and joking. “Bloody idiots,” said one, pondering aloud as to what the protestors thought they’d achieve.

But sitting around their campfire later that night the determined residents of the now semi-permanent Shannon peace camp, believed they had already achieved a great deal.

From obscurity a year or so ago, they have now managed to catch the public’s imagination sparking a national debate.

The growing public disquiet at the level of troop movement through Shannon has also forced the Government on to the backfoot.

Early last week, the Government flatly denied that troops and planes were carrying arms. Then, it emerged the troops were carrying sidearms and weapons were stored in the cargo holds.

In a surprise statement on Thursday, Defence Minister, Michael Smith, proclaimed no one could be neutral when it came to war with Iraq.

But ministers appear to be backtracking fast and the Shannon peace activists now feel the Government is running scared.

“I believe they are on the run. I believe they are very out of touch with public opinion,” said Green Party chairman, John Gormley who spent a night in the camp before Saturday’s protest.

Labour’s Michael D Higgins, bound for Iraq on Wednesday, also pointed to the Government’s deafening silence. “Isn’t it extraordinary that they haven’t had the courage to say what it is that Bertie Ahern agreed to when he met George Bush,” he said.

The question is what’s next for the protestors.

Sitting in a candle-lit caravan veteran campaigner Caoimhe Butterly knows the group has reached a turning point.

Without sufficient public support there will be no Government u-turn. Just what has to be done by the protestors to harness more support remains to be seen.

There is no doubt that many of the activists are prepared to break the law if necessary. However, it may not come to that.

Eoin Dubsky’s High Court challenge to the Government’s cooperation with US military forces begins in earnest today.

This afternoon Mr Dubsky’s legal team will table a discovery order in the High Court seeking Government orders and documents relating to Shannon and US flights. If the court decides to allow the case to proceed the Government could be facing, at best, many more embarrassing revelations regarding Shannon and, at worst, a judgement against the legality of its Shannon policy.

Either way the argument as to what should and should not be passing through Shannon is about to step up a gear. Both the Government and the activists in Shannon’s peace camp will be watching very closely.