Translation: ‘Today- a quiet village in Ardudwy, Tomorrow - a training school for bomber pilots‘
Cymdeithas y Cymod, the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Wales has a local group close to the Llanbedr Airfield, one of the largest airstrips in Britain with a military history rooted in the Second World War.
After months of peace campaigning, the news has just been announced that a proposed Air Traffic Zone at Llanbedr to allow the British Royal Air Force to use the airfield has been halted. It was to be an extension to RAF Valley, which is “responsible for training the UK's next generation of world-class fighter pilots ….to get pilots to the front line quicker.”
Cymdeithas y Cymod knew that RAF Valley trains Saudi Arabian pilots who in turn are bombing Yemen. Despite the court's ruling that selling arms to Saudi Arabia was illegal the British Government support to Saudi Arabia and the massacre of innocent civilians in Yemen continues. By allowing the land and airspace of Wales to be used the Welsh government is complicit too. Over 20 thousand civilians killed and 24 million starving in the Yemen the world's largest humanitarian crisis according to the secretary general of the United Nations.
Over the last weeks and months, Cymdeithas y Cymod joined forces with the Peace Pledge Union and mounted a public awareness campaign. They produced a briefing paper that was sent to Welsh and other sympathetic Members of Parliament, to Welsh Parliament representatives and to local councillors. Articles appeared in the press and social media.
There is a desperate need for jobs in this area but not the jobs that destroy lives across the world. The group proposed that the investment should instead be used to create work which would bring security to young people and to use their skills to do peaceful and creative work which would benefit local communities.
There are of course many other concerns. The environmental considerations, How do you reconcile these developments with Gwynedd Council's Environmental objectives? It was proposed that up to 50 RAF planes could be flying daily from Llanbedr, how would it have been possible to reach the goal set by the Welsh Government and Gwynedd of being carbon neutral by 2030? There have been complaints for years about the noise created by the RAF planes and now with up to 50 RAF planes a day flying from Llanbedr the situation is bound to worsen. A large part of our economy here depends on tourism and this could affect the industry adversely.
But these are only secondary considerations. It is the militarisation of the land and airspace of Wales and the wider world that is our concern. Britain profits from the training it provides to the armies and air forces of 26 countries The Campaign Against the Arms Trade states that "Many of these armies have appalling human rights records and are responsible for upholding brutal and oppressive laws"
Cymdeithas y Cymod is steadfast in its convictions and proud to be a part of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation family.