Men charged over war games protest

9th July 2009

TWO men have been arrested for blockading a joint Australian-US military exercise in central Queensland.

The pair, Jim Dowling and Ciaron O'Reilly, describe themselves as veteran members of the pacifist Catholic Worker movement.

Police say the men, aged 53 and 49, were arrested about 7.10am (AEST) on Thursday after blocking Raspberry Creek Road at Glen Geddes.

The road is the access route to the exercise, Talisman Sabre, which is staged biannually at Shoalwater, near Rockhampton, involving almost 30,000 soldiers.

The pair say they knelt on the road with signs saying "War is Terror is War" and "Resist the War on Afghanistan", stopping more than a dozen US Marine troop carriers entering the area.

Mr O'Reilly described Talisman Sabre as "an exercise in futility".

"Talisman Sabre is not a game or an exercise, it is a fantasy - a war theatre with no civilians," he said in a statement.

"Most of those being killed by American, Australian and Pakistan militaries are innocent civilians, most fatalities have been women and children.

"These Talisman Sabre exercises are significant preparations for more killing."

The men, charged with contravening a move-on direction, are due to appear in Rockhampton Magistrates Court on Thursday afternoon.

At the last exercise in 2007, at least 16 protesters were arrested for entering a restricted area, and two men were charged for chaining themselves to a US marine vehicle.