Trident Ploughshares is since 1998 fighting the British nuclear weapons with nonviolent direct action. Britain has got four Trident nuclear submarines with a capacity of more than 1000 Hiroshima bombs. In March this year, the British minister of defence, George Hoon threatened to use nuclear weapons against Iraq.
One of these submarines, called Vanguard, is currently being fixed and fuelled with radioactive material at the Devonport dockyard in the south west of England.
Trident Ploughshares have had a disarmament cammp in Devonport the 14th-19th November. By inspections, blockades and other actions, we have been trying to stop the Vanguard from further use.
The British government has been one of the loudest voices for an attack against Iraq if they don't grant access for the UN weapons inspectors. At the same time the government is ignoring the advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice from 1996, saying that the possession or threat to use nuclear arms is generally illegal.
Elisa and I decided to inspect the facilities for weapons of mass destruction in the Devonport Dockyard. At Friday evening at 9.30 we went from the Trident Ploughshares campsite to the Dockyard. After some time of walking through itching bushes outside the fence, we found a good spot to climb it. We put some thick plastic that we found on top of the sharp edges of it and then managed to get over. It was a walk of about 300 meters to the Trident dock, and we passed a tennis court, some houses and docks for other ships. No guards or polices were in sight and the few people, walking or in cars, that we passed didn't seem to take any notice about us.
My mouth was dry and my legs soft like spaghetti when we reached the final fence, just outside "Vanguard". There it was, the submarine that can wipe out whole cities with a single strike. It was covered with construction works and white plastic and was huge. We made a small door in the fence with our bolt cutters we had brought and went on towards the submarine. There were still no guards visible so we went on board. At this stage we were not really sure about what to do. After we had been inside of it and seen the holes on the outside were they fire the missiles, we decided to press an alarm button. The first alarm button we found didn't work, so we went to the other side of the submarine and found two fire alarm buttons. We pressed the first one (this was at 11.30 according to the police, and we had probably been on and inside of the sub for 20 minutes). Nothing happened in a couple of minutes, so we pressed the other one too. Then lots of workers, maybe 10-20 came up from the lower parts of the submarine, just were we were standing. We explained to them that we were from Trident Ploughshares and that the submarine is illegal, but they seemed to be more keen on having a break than to discuss legal matters with us. So they went to a nearby building. After another couple of minutes security staff turned up and showed us the way to the office just next to the sub. The walls in there were covered with electrical diagrams of the missile system and other things I didn't understand. The staff offered us tea and coffee and we were chatting for a while until the police turned up and arrested us at 11.55.
No one saw us getting in, but the police confiscated out two pairs of bolt cutters and "Nuclear Weapons for Beginners" - a guide Elisa had brought, as evidence.
On 16th of December, the local court in Plymouth will set a date for our trial.

 elisa.silvennoinen@joensuu.fi
 petterjoelson@yahoo.se
 http://sweden.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=32989&group=webcast