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Derry Anti War Coalition (link to website)

Rally for Raytheon 9 at Courthouse, Derry, Tuesday, June 5th

Wednesday 30th May 2007

Delegations from Belfast and Dublin are to attend a rally at the Courthouse in Derry next Tuesday (June 5th) calling for charges against the Raytheon 9 to be dropped.

The nine members of the Derry Anti War Coalition (DAWC) have been charged with affray and criminal damage as a result of an occupation of the local Raytheon plant in August last year. The Preliminary Examination of the case is set for Tuesday.

In a statement yesterday, the DAWC said: "We have asked people to assemble outside the Courthouse at 9.30 on Tuesday to support the call for the charges to be dropped. Our argument has been summed up from the outset in the slogan that, 'It is not a crime to resist war-crimes.'

"It seems ludicrous to us, against the background of continuing slaughter in an illegal war in Iraq, not to mention the appalling events in Palestine and Lebanon, that these nine people should be charged with criminal offences as a result of an action in which property was allegedly damaged, not people.

"We believe that there are many people in Derry and elsewhere who may not fully agree with what the Raytheon 9 did but who at the same time do not believe that their actions were criminal. It is on this basis that we have launched the call for the charges to be dropped.

"No-one now denies that the Raytheon plant in Derry is engaged in war production. We have shown that it was a bomb manufactured by Raytheon which was dropped by the Istraeli Defence Forces and inflicted death on up to 50 innocent people who had sought shelter in a basement in Qana in southern Lebanon on July 30th last year. It was this atrocity which prompted the occupation of the company's Derry premises.

"We welcome the fact that delegations from anti-war groups in both the North and the Republic will be coming to Derry on Tuesday to show their solidarity. We will also, of course, welcome support from the people of Derry, whatever their political views."





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