Rooted in faith
Sam Walton writes about his peace witness
As I sat in the cell my mind wandered. What would be happening now? It was about eleven o’clock on Sunday morning – Quaker Meeting time! No wonder I felt so lifted up. People must know about our action by now and be praying for us. The orderly who opened the flap, peered in and enquired: ‘Ya alwight?’ He looked a bit surprised to be met by a smile and a ‘Never better.’
I was arrested at about five in the morning, at BAE Systems’ airbase in Warton, Lancashire, with the Methodist reverend Daniel Woodhouse. We were attempting to disarm fighter jets due to be delivered to the Royal Saudi Air Force for attacks on Yemen. The aircraft are part of a multi-billion pound deal between BAE Systems and the Saudi regime, and were due to be shipped to Saudi Arabia within weeks.
We had set up an automated email to go out after our action to tell key people, and another to send the press release. My brother would have phoned my parents, and they would be letting Friends and family know.
My mind flicked to who else would be finding out. Though I undertook this action in my own time, and colleagues had no prior knowledge of my planned actions, I do work at Friends House. I was aware of acting in a long tradition of Friends who felt called to act according to a higher power and to break the law of the land, knowing they would suffer for their faith. I felt grateful to be employed somewhere that would understand my actions.
I was delighted we had got onto the base, and hopeful we’d be able to draw attention to the UK arming Saudi. Yet I was gutted that we couldn’t disarm a plane and stop it being used to carry out airstrikes in Yemen. By stopping or even delaying Saudi Arabia having more planes with which to bomb Yemen we would have saved innocent lives and prevented war crimes.
Dan and I have both been involved in arms trade campaigning for donkey’s years, and in the face of wilful government denial that there is a problem with arming Saudi, including suspending our own due process of law, and complete unwillingness to consider stopping arming Saudi Arabia, we felt we must take this action.
A legal analysis, from Matrix Chambers, had found that the UK government is breaking international, EU and UK law by supplying arms to Saudi Arabia. Two parliamentary committees have condemned these arms exports. Next week sees the start of a judicial review of the government’s decision to keep selling arms to Saudi Arabia (see ‘High Court hearing on arms exports’).
It is absolutely beyond a shadow of a doubt that BAE’s Typhoons and Tornados are being used by the Saudis in their war in Yemen, where they are committing war crimes: 76 per cent of deaths in Yemen are civilians, 69 per cent of civilian deaths and injuries were caused by air-launched weapons, and over 99 per cent of civilian deaths and injuries from airstrikes were by those perpetrated by the Saudi-led coalition. That means 52 per cent of those people killed in Yemen are civilians killed by Saudi airstrikes.
We were fortunate to be released on bail within twenty-four hours of our arrest. A local Friend had kindly dropped off a copy of Quaker faith & practice at the police station for me. It was a lovely thing to happen, and cemented the sense of feeling supported by Friends.
That sense matters hugely to me, as this action was rooted in faith. I am clear that right now I am called to protest, to say ‘no’, to tear down the pillars of sin and satan. Whilst we all have different callings, it means a lot to me that Friends can understand why we take these actions.
One thing that you notice with Friends is that, unlike others, they don’t ask what they can do to help – they already know the value of prayerful upholding, and also practical support. I am deeply grateful to Friends for such support. I know Friends will continue to support Quaker Peace & Social Witness and Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) in their work, as well as continuing to heed their own callings.
Support will continue to be important to Dan and I over the coming months as we face the consequences of our actions and use them to talk about why the UK must #StopArmingSaudi.
Comments
Please login to add a comment
