Authorities probe Shoalwater protesters

Kieran Campbell | 14th July 2009

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Anti-Talisman Saber protests

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Poll

Should police remove the protesters from Shoalwater Bay?

This poll ended on 14 August 2009.

Yes

58%

38%

Undecided

This is not a scientific poll. The results reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate.

MILITARY authorities say they are investigating four anti-war protesters who claim to have infiltrated the Shoalwater Bay Training Area and moved towards a live-fire area yesterday.

The protesters say their mission is to stop Talisman Saber exercises and be in the war game zone as long as possible.

Talisman Saber spokesman Captain Bryan Lewis yesterday said there was yet to be any disruption to the war games.

He said if any trespassers were found the military would have them escorted to civilian police.

Calling themselves the “Bonhoeffer 4” after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s favourite theologian, the protest group is made up of:

Margaret Pestorius, 44, a social worker from Cairns;
Jarrod McKenna, 28, a school peace educator from Perth;
Jessica Morrison, 33, a university lecturer from Melbourne; and,
Reverend Simon Moyle, 32, a Baptist Minister from Melbourne.

The non-violent Christian activists released a statement yesterday calling on “Australian and US forces to cease their involvement in the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the undeclared war in Pakistan”.

They said they were putting their “bodies on the line in order to stop the US/Australian Talisman Saber Military Exercise and jam a spoke in the wheel of war”.

“These exercises are implicated in killing and injuring our sisters and brothers in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including untold numbers of civilians.”