Once again, the civil inspectors entered the NATO base of Bétera (Spain

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Monday May 16, 2005 18:52 by inspection inspecciociutadana at yahoo dot com

Similarly to what happened the last two years, a group of inspectors crossed the wire fences of the future headquarter of the NATO Response Force in Valencia (Spain) in order to claim for its closure and return to the population, inspite of a strong deployment of police forces.

Civil inspectors entered the base near Valencia but inmediately were expelled by the police

May 14, 2005

Similarly to what happened the last two years, a group of inspectors crossed the wire fences of the future headquarter of the NATO Response Force in order to claim for its closure and return to the population, inspite of a strong deployment of police forces.

More than one hundred civil inspectors left on saturday morning the village of Bétera to undertake the walk to the headquarter of the NATOs Rapid Reaction Force, which lies at a distance of 4 km. The participants were equipped with white coats, signs (showing slogans as "CLOSE DOWN THE BASE", "RETURN THE BASE", "NATO OUT"), prismatics, cameras, questionnaires and, as a special feature this year, with magnifying glasses in order to carry out their investigation. During the march of about one hour the group has been accompanied by a strong deployment of the Guardia Civil (military security forces), that consisted in a large number of police vehicles, motorbikes, dozens of officers and dogs. Not to forget a helicopter that several times passed closely to the ground and even landed on a roundabout near the headquarter, only some meters away from the march. Some officers intended to impede the advance of the group on the road leading to the base, arguing that they were "waiting for instructions", but the inspectores passed them quite easily.

About 12’30 a.m. the march, that at this time had a lenght of about 100m, crossed the road and started walking directly beside the headquarter's fence. Some minutes later they reached the place where the entrance was to happen, near to the fences of the main installations of the base. Inspite of the presence of the riot police inside and outside the base and of the helicopter just a few meters above the inspectors' heads, the fourteen inspectors in charge of carrying out the inspection of the interior of the base, managed to cross the wire fences and entered the military site. During these moments it could be seen that the officers were acting with more brutality that in former editions of this action, threatening the participants with their truncheons, pushing them violently and even grabbing their necks. The persons that had entered the base did not manage to advance in direction of the main installations on accounts of the expeditiuos conduct of the riot police, that after surrounding and concentrating the group on a small spot forced them to sit down using in several cases painful immovilizing techniques. The officers that were present in the interior of the military site refused to answer any of the questions of the questionnaires that the inspectors carried with them and that treated topics such as the presence of weapons of mass destruction, uranium ammunition and cluster bombs at the NATO base. In a few minutes, and even without sufficient time to take their arab tea, the fourteen inspectors were identified and expelled, carrying them one by one over a hole in the fence to the outside. None of them was arrested.

In the exterior, the other inspectors sang and threw flowers in honor of the potential victims of this offensive military installation.

As we were told by the inspectors team, "once again the secretism and the opacity of the military affairs has been visible: As we could not carry out the intended mission of observation we will return next year. Nevertheless we were able to confirm that it is an installation that produces and stores violence, insecurity and fear, and that has the capacity to project them to any place in the world. As we don't want to be part of a global war in that everyone of us is a potential victim, we reclaim the dismantling of these and the other military installations. In the meanwhile we will do everything possible to obstruct and impede their functioning by means of disobedience and nonviolent action. For now we leave quite pleased, because our action supposed a hindrance to the normal functioning of this war installation for quite a while".

The proposal that they make with their action is obvious: "immediate closure of the installation, return of 100% of the land to the village of Bétera for social and ecologic use, as an extension of the Natural Parc "La Sierra Calderona" and as a center of environmental observation and protection (using of the buildings and the military helicopters)".



Photos:
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/178841/index.php

Press (spanish):
http://www.nodo50.org/tortuga/article.php3?id_article=1860



Further information:

Context of the action

This action continues a campaign of four years, during which have taken place several marches, demonstrations, camps, parodies of the base as a theme parc of war, graffities, retouching of traffic signs, lock-ons, “disinfections”, clowns entering the headquarter, inspections... Last october, four persons blocked the departure of a train with material of the base for military exercices that was heading to Zaragoza. At the moment they are being processed because of "public disturbances" with a petition of the district attorney of one year of prison and are waiting for the trial.

From the last year on, the civil inspection follows an international call for antimilitarist action reclaiming the closure and the reconversion of military installations and armies' abolition. In the rest of Spain, in the months of April and May there are taking place marches, camps and actions at the US base of Rota (Cádiz), the radar base of Aitana (Alicante), the military chemical fabric of La Marañosa (Madrid), the military exercise fields of San Gregorio (Zaragoza), the shooting fields of Las Bardenas (Navarra), the headquarter of Mungia (Bizkaia), the paratroopers' headquarter of Murcia, and the helicopters' base of El Recajo (Logroño), among others. All these together with the protest actions in A Coruña against the parade of the military forces that will take place in that city the 28th of may make this month a real "hot may" against war and armies

(see: http://www.nodo50.org/tortuga/article.php3?id_article=1694)

What the inspectors were looking for

As last year, the inspection was organized following the idea that the mere existence of a military headquarter supposes an atrocity that justifies to be examined with magnifying glasses, but that the NATO installations deserve especial attention when carrying out investigations on crimes against humanity. Independent organizations have demonstrated over the last years that the Atlantic Alliance owns weapons of mass destruction (it stores 480 nuclear warheads on european bases in spite of the fact that the International Court of Justice in The Hague declared them illegal), is being involved in the rings of prostitution and sex trade in Kosovo, bombed the Balcans with uranium ammunition and cluster bombs and attacked deliberately civil objectives.

According to the civil inspectors, «it sounds like a bad joke when you hear that the functions of these troops are fighting against international terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, knowing that the NATO itself stores nuclear warheads on european bases; a macabre joke, as these pseudo-arguments and absolute lies were used to sell the massacre and the destruction of Iraq.».

What plans did the inspectors have for the case that the military authorities wouldn't colaborate

The inspectors' team pretended to stay within the military installation as long as possible until they would be expelled, in order to recover at least for some hours for the whole world "a piece of land that the military dictator Franco stole to the inhabitants of Bétera in 1940 to control Valencia and where we find today an installation that supposes a danger for us and especially for the people that live on the southern coast of the mediterranean sea and in the Middle East». Before being expelled by the Guardia Civil they would «use the time to have a snack and drink some arab tea to show our brotherhood with the people that are being the main target of the armies». While leaving the place they would put flowers on the fences in honor of the future victims of the base.

Possible legal consequences of the action

It's an action of civil disobedience and according to legislation it can be punished with 3 months to 3 years of prison. But according to what the military Attorney General expressed in a document that forms part of the process file of an action during that antimilitaristic clowns invaded the base in 2003, this type of actions of nonviolent disobedience can be seen as decriminalized: The Attorney General says that there are numerous sentences of the Spanish Supreme Court that state that these actions are not to be seen as a crime.

Where did the resources necessary for organizing all this come from?

The inspectors' team pointed out that the resources for organizing the action were raised by the voluntary work of a numerous group of activists, «apart from the money of some of the 100 war tax resisters in Valencia that decided that their taxes are better used in this kind of actions than in the army and the Ministry of Defense».


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