AUSTRALIA - Catholic Workers & other activists in court for blockading GallipolOn 5 March five Christian activists-Cully, Jim, Christel, Andy and Sean, appeared in Brisbane Magistrate Court to face charges of “causing a public nuisance” and “disobeying a police direction without a reasonable excuse.” These charges arose from a civil disobedience action on 7 October last year outside Gallipoli Barracks in Brisbane, to make the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan. Gallipoli Barracks is one of Australia’s largest bases, from where the most troops have been deployed to Afghanistan.

Successive Australian Governments have fully supported the war, repeatedly arguing that we ‘are bringing security to the Afghani people’, ‘we will stay the course’ and ‘we will not cut and run’. Sadly there has been little public resistance to this stand.

However on the 7th October, 25 people gathered at the front gates of the base for a moving prayer ceremony. During the ceremony five people knelt and prayed on the roadway and blocked traffic for 30-40 minutes. Army vehicles, staff, and contractors’ vehicles banked up as the five, holding photographs of civilian casualties, recited the names of the dead along with those on the footpath. The five were arrested after repeatedly refusing to move.
In court this week, the prosecutor attempted to dismiss the group’s actions as having no justification. He focussed upon the group’s refusal to follow a police direction. In cross examination police and army witnesses all denied hearing or understanding what the protesters were saying in relation to the suffering brought upon the people of Afghanistan by a war that had raged for 10 years. In countering, the 5 argued that there was ‘reasonable excuse’. They spoke of their own personal journeys, being moved by the growing suffering of the Afghani people and the Australian government’s complicity through its military involvement.
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 http://workersbushtelegraph.com.au/2012/03/08/court-report-enoggera-five/