Chester Street Uniting Earth Ministry Lacuna Group

Pine Gap Trial Update #2

Posted: 31/05/2007



 
First day in court + vigil reports from Donna Mulhearn:
Dear friends,
 
We all enjoyed a successful first (official) day of the trial, with the jury selection process over by 11.30am and the prosecution then starting its opening address.
 
I’ll sum up the tone of the prosecution’s case with some quotes from our entertaining friend, Crown Prosecutor, Hilton Dembo:
 
“One cannot take the law into ones own hands. We live in a democracy that’s expected to work peacefully…”
 
“Imagine if everyone took the law into their own hands. Imagine the chaos! For example, what if we walked past a shoe shop and liked a pair of shoes and we all break in to steal the shoes. You can’t do that in a civilised society.”
 
“What if you have a suspicion that your neighbour is doing drugs – you can’t go and invade his house acting only suspicion…we live in a democratic society…
 
“In a civilised society, a process has to be gone through…”
 
Ummm Mr Dembo, are you referring to the concept of a pre-emptive strike being illegal. Yes – we agree!!! Please can you pass this onto the Bush administration!
 
So in his opening address, Mr Dembo tried to connect us with theft and drugs and chaos!!
 
We can’t wait for our chance to reply!! And to agree with his opinion about following due process!
 
Mr Dembo then called the Australian head of Pine Gap, Mike Burgess. We look forward to cross-examining Mr Burgess tomorrow!
 
I’ll send the media coverage of today’s proceedings in another e-mail. In the meantime, I just wanted to share some reports and pics from solidarity vigils in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide  
 
Sydney: Tuesday at 1pm fifteen people gathered on the steps of Pitt St. Uniting Church, next door to the Department of Defence, to stand in solidarity with the Pine Gap 4. For an hour we reflected on the role of Pine Gap in Iraq and Afghanistan , the courageous action of the PG4 and our own future as peacemakers. We stood in a circle and amid the loud din of the city we created a space of reflection, reading out a statement about peace every 3 minutes or so. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God … “Non-cooperation with evil is as much as duty as cooperation with good … There is no way to peace; peace is the way …” We closed by sharing a kiss of peace with each other. We were a small group but we were joined by the Holy Spirit of Peace and we knew we were part of something happening around the country. We finished at 2pm, as the trial in Alice Springs began, wishing peace upon all the people involved in the trial.
 
Brisbane: Tuesday: We had a successful gathering and prayer for you all in the church this morning.
Lit a candle for you all and sent some good vibes and prayers. A few of us then went over to the courts in George St and vigiled there for an hour or so. Had a lot of positive responses, a few negative, mostly positive. Some will be returning this afternoon.
 
Adelaide: Saturday, see pics below (the cage) as well as the van from Melbourne (Midnight Oil fans will recognise the slightly changed quote!) and pics from our successful street stall in Alice Todd Mall.
 
More news soon!
Donna 
 
Photos of the vigil in Melbourne can be seen at:
 
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/145637_comment.php
 
Click "preview" first,
then click "submit" to confirm.

Search

Search