To quote one of the Bonhoeffer 4 activists, Simon Reeves from court “Charges dismissed by magistrate!! Magistrate agrees sanctity of life is more important than unjust laws.” More information, including a link to the legislation they were discharged under, is available at  http://paceebene.org/blog/jarrod-mckenna/breaking-news-charges-dismissed-magistrate-jarrodmckenna and via @jarrodmckenna on Twitter

Information about the Bonhoeffer 4 and their original press release which was circulated in March 2010 is copied below.

Here is the media release from the Bonhoeffer Peace Collective, four Christian peace activists who yesterday morning infiltrated the secret Australian military base on Swan Island - after swimming to the island at 5.30am, they spent several hours on the base shutting down the switchboard, a satellite and causing a lock down on the base, effectively disrupting the Australian war effort in Afghanistan. The four were charged with trespass. There is a video of the Bonhoeffer Peace Collective explaining their action at  http://paceebene.org/blog/jarrod-mckenna/breaking- news-bonhoeffer-activists-secret-military-base-now

Activists breach secret military base

Media release: The Bonhoeffer Peace Collective

31 March 2010

At 6am this morning, four Christian peace activists entered Swan Island, one of Australia’s most secret military installations near Queenscliff, Victoria, seeking to disrupt the war in Afghanistan.

“Both Swan Island and the war on Afghanistan are out of sight, out of mind. It’s time to end further suffering of the Afghan people and our soldiers by bringing our troops home,” the group said.

Swan Island is a highly secretive military installation used by the Army’s elite Special Air Service (SAS) and the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS). Swan Island is said to be more secretive than Pine Gap in central Australia.

“In the week before the first Easter, Jesus blockaded the temple and turned the tables inside. Today we are imitating Jesus’ disruption”, the group said. “Sometimes you have to get in the way of injustice”.

“War can’t bring peace, it can only bring further terror, death and poverty,” the group said.

Rev. Simon Moyle (Baptist Minister), Jacob Bolton (Community Worker), Jessica Morrison (University Lecturer) and Simon Reeves (Social Worker) have called themselves the Bonhoeffer Peace Collective after Kevin Rudd’s favourite theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was also an antiwar activist.

“The followers of Christ have been called to peace. And they must not only have peace but also make it. His disciples keep the peace by choosing to endure suffering themselves rather than inflict it on others. In so doing they overcome evil with good, and establish the peace of God in the midst of a world of war and hate.”- Dietrich Bonhoeffer