Trinity Nuclear Abolition NEWS RELEASE
17 August 2011
Vigil Commemorates LANL and LLNL Bombing of Shoshone Territory
Trinity Nuclear Abolition (TNA) will hold a peace vigil at the White Rock entrance to "Department of Energy territory" at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) on August 29th. The vigil at the corner of Diamond and West Jemez begins at 7am and ends at 8am. Recognizing the danger Los Alamos presents to the world, TNA demonstrators pray for peace, safety, environmental justice and they hope to alert employees of the employees' duty to stop LANL's criminal activities as per the Nuremberg Principles. TNA will have 5 to 10 courteous demonstrators on-site at this month's peaceful, nonviolent, non-obtrusive vigil. TNA is not intending to break any laws, but rather intends their prayers to help LANL's employees STOP committing crimes against humanity (which are supposed to be illegal under international law). August 29th is the anniversary date of Lawrence Livermore nuclear bomb detonation (in concert with the United Kingdom's testing program) and a LANL nuclear bomb detonation in Shoshone territory at the Nevada National Security Site. The Livermore test was called "Nessel" and desecrated the desert in 1979. The LANL test was called "Sled" and was exploded in 1968. The Department of Energy/NNSA have yet to apologize to the Shoshone people for these offenses.
TNA vigils have been conducted at LANL since August 2007. This peace vigil will be the 51st picketing event for TNA, held in August because this is the anniversary month of the Trinity, Fat Man and Little Boy nuclear bomb tests near Socorro, New Mexico and in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan 66 years ago. The 2nd and 3rd of those explosions instantly killed tens of thousands of civilians at the end of WWII. The Trinity test in NM led to poisoning local folks who are now able to get compensation from the US Government. TNA conducts monthly vigils to remind the public and the LANL employees that LANL is actively conducting international criminal activity, as shown by the nuclear bomb pit production work at the Chemistry Metallurgy Research (CMR) facility, and as LANL continues to build a replacement for the current CMR facility (the new CMRR). The CMRR Nuclear Facility (CMRR-NF) violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by working to make more nuclear weapons. It is also sited foolishly on a narrow mesa of volcanic ash in an earthquake zone. The price tag therefore continues to rise each year and is currently scheduled to cost over 6 billion dollars. Meanwhile, the Las Conchas fire has terribly hurt local communities in the shadow of saving LANL from burning. TNA agrees with Beata Tsosie-Pena of the Santa Clara Pueblo: the Department of Energy needs to "use the 6 billion dollars [over the next 17 years] on reforestation and watershed restoration instead of the CMRR-NF."
TNA organizes short monthly vigils at LANL, but in this International Month of Nuclear Abolition, TNA pledges to continue public witness activities until LANL becomes a clean-up facility, ceasing all NEW nuclear weapons research, development, or production. On July 31st, TNA joined Pax Christi New Mexico's annual Ashes & Sackcloth vigil to commemorate the sinful terrorism of US nuclear bombs in Japan. TNA supports the immediate peaceful ending of nuclear weapons research, development, and production. For four years TNA has protested LANL’s noncompliance with the U.S. Constitutional duties and U.S. treaty obligations.
TNA is always nonviolent, playful, prayerful and peaceful in the prayer-actions conducted at LANL.
TNA holds the position that LANL employees commit local, federal and international crimes on-site in this territory rightfully belonging to various Tewa pueblo peoples. TNA is always nonviolent, peaceful and usually playful. The lovarchists of TNA attempt to love enemies, and advocate for others to do likewise, in order to bring about the highest quality of security. TNA thereby calls for cleanup of radioactive sites, disarmament of nuclear weapons industries and active rebuilding of a peaceful structures in the USA. TNA denounces nuclearism because TNA is a spiritually grounded group promoting peaceful disciplines and healthy ways of living in harmony with creation.
Two of the LANL Fathers Day Five arrive for the peaceful prayer-action on August 16th, 2011
