Trinational Fasting in Büchel from 6th till 9th of August

People in Paris, London, some in Africa and the usual ones in Japan commemorated the atomic-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki again. Global Communication among each other “just in time” is still a little complicated, therefore let's say "trinational" for now. Also for me it was hard this time, but the group motivates. In addition to that I knew that some people already stopped eating on July 30th. atomwaffenfrei.de (ICAN) and the international Fellowship of reconciliation were those who invited to come to Büchel. Some of the youngsters played a theatre piecec with music, a trumpet player blew "we shall overcome" every hour on the dot in front of the military airbase and of course we had interesting dialogues during our protest. At 6 o'clock in the morning the camp slowly woke up. First a few people tried to reach the soldiers when the shift changed and one troop came out while the other moved in. They handed out letters to them. Then people gathered for a devotion and later everybody showed presence.

Names of victims always close the ceremony. One reads the name aloud for everybody to listen in peaceful commemoration and a candle is lit. I don't know how many we heard already, but this time we also lit another candle for "a victim we don't know a name for". A human being swallowed by the chain reaction of death, erased from city life, a city which knew their name for sure... Who knows, maybe in Japan here and there a memory sparks, something that gets pushed away immediately because it's to terrifying, ... - suppressed facing the new weapons of mass destruction like those in North Korea or just those they want to modernize soon here in Büchel.

Our representatives wrote they will disarm nuclear weapons because Germany shall never start a war again and will therefor urge the Americans to withdraw their bombs. This is known by Berlin also because we keep reminding them, this is known by smart boys like Thilo Jung, this is known by politicians who spoke out in Austria to ban those weapons! Let's conclude we all know the fu***** deal.

In the area around Nevada, where most a-bombs detonated since world war II, Native Americans used to protest around Christopher Columbus Day. A guy who joined them when he was a student told us about their awareness while we walked around the whole airbase with colourful flags. Young People from Russia, Serbia, Israel and Italy heard this story.

A "go-in" was prevented by moving the fence closer towards the civil area. A sign warns "Schießbefehl" (firing order). It moves closer towards the area of responsibility of the police, the public and the usual traffic up on this hill in the Eifel. This fence – no problem! It doesn't bother us, but expanding the shooting zone is a wrong signal! A wrong signal by the Bundeswehr (or NATO?), and unfortunately again a symbol of failing instruments on the political level.

Everyone should understand from the press what's really going on in Büchel. Visit the "Friedenswiese", ask the soldiers, the residents or us what should happen. By the way maybe that's what they are wondering, too. One thing is clear, we all want to live now and in future (free from the atomic bomb).

Onno Oncken