Pine Gap vigil in Melbourne
by Christop Wednesday May 30, 2007 at 12:33 PM
christop@gmail.com

Vigil in Bourke Street Mall yesterday to mark the beginning of the Pine Gap Four's trial in Alice Springs.

Yesterday was the beginning of the Pine Gap Four's trial. The Pine Gap Four are a group of Christians who are on trial for attempting to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding the Pine Gap military base in the Northern Territory. They face seven years imprisonment for their actions. Pine Gap is a joint US/Australian military facility that has played a significant role in the Iraq war. Its existence and activities call into question Australia’s sovereignty as a nation, and make us complicit in the many war crimes that have already taken place in Iraq in the last four years. From 12 noon till 2pm today we had a prayer vigil, including reading aloud the names of people who've been killed in the Iraq War (both coalition forces and Iraqis). It was pretty full-on reading out the names of the people killed, and reading about who they were how they had died. A majority of the Iraqis were civilians – farmers, clerics, students, children. Most of the people walking past ignored us (which wasn't surprising), but we still got to talk to a fair few people about Pine Gap, including one guy who lives in Alice Springs.

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