Thursday, October 04, 2007

Bringing the peace message to London


At the Cutty Sark Gardens in Greenwich, next to the fire-damaged veteran tea clipper – now under wraps and under repair – a large group of Peace Cyclists from all over Europe and beyond converged to bring the anti-nuclear message to Londoners.
The cyclists from France, Germany, Estonia, Norway, Georgia, Nepal and many other places were all young doctors or medical students who had ridden around Europe delivering their message against nuclear weapons.
They were greeted by the Lewisham and Greenwich CND with an array of banners and a map of London and the south-east of England. X marked the spot in the centre of Greenwich and concentric circles were drawn to indicate the levels of damage that would be done if a Trident or similar nuclear warhead landed at the centre. fired back
Campaigners pointed out that if Britain is prepared to use Trident missiles, similar missiles could be fired back.
Within the one-kilometre circle all buildings would be flattened; people along with all other living things would be vaporised leaving just a faint dark stain on the bricks.
Within the two-kilometre circle most buildings would be knocked down and people reduced to smouldering lumps of burnt meat, blown into piles by the blast.
Within the three-mile zone there would be some survivors frantically struggling over the bodies of the dead and seeking help. But there would not be any help – emergency services could maybe cope with thousands of casualties but not millions.
Even beyond that up to five kilometres there would still be heavy casualties and building damage. And beyond that millions would be affected by radiation and face a slow, painful death from radiation sickness.
The young cyclists had arrived in London to attend a conference, “Nuclear Weapons – the final pandemic: Preventing proliferation and achieving abolition,” which was organised by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and the Royal Society of Medicine.
A demonstration is being organised by the Stop the War Coalition for Monday 8th October, to call for the immediate withdrawal of all British troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. The demonstration will assemble in Trafalgar Square at 1 pm.Currently the Stop the War Coalition’s proposed march to Parliament is banned by the police.

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