Peace protesters arrested at nuclear base

Military police arrested seven women protesters yesterday after they broke into the Faslane nuclear submarine base and chained themselves to a French navy frigate.

Military police arrested seven women protesters yesterday after they broke into the Faslane nuclear submarine base and chained themselves to a French navy frigate.

After surprising security guards by cutting through a wire fence at 6am, they unfurled a banner that read: "Women of the world unite for a world without war".

Three protesters climbed 50 feet up ladders before chaining themselves to railings on the ship and stayed there for five hours while the Ministry of Defence brought in specialised cutting equipment and harnesses to get them down.

They were eventually taken away and charged with breaching the peace and resisting arrest before being released on police bail. Marianne Williamson, 23, from the Netherlands, was one of those taken into custody. She said: "We did this as part of our women's weekend. It was International Women's Day on Thursday and apparently there has been a tradition for quite some years of having a special weekend immediately afterwards.

"Usually it is held at Coulport, which is where they keep the nuclear warheads. But this year, because of foot-and-mouth, we decided to have it here instead. In order to get near Coulport you have to cross quite a lot of farmland.

"Three of us were charged with breach of the peace and resisting arrest. It's quite usual for them to charge us with resisting arrest but it rarely goes to court because we don't actively resist. It's more like being unco-operative," she said.

An MoD spokesman denied that security measures were insufficient but conceded that the fuel depot where the frigate was berthed was less secure than the rest of the base.

In February politicians and clergy were among 379 people arrested after a similar protest outside the Scottish naval base. There has been a peace camp at Faslane for 19 years with four full-time protesters usually present but this weekend numbers rose to 15.