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Birmingham Action Against CIA Flights |
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On  Saturday 24 June 2006, Birmingham Guantanamo Campaign held a vigil on the A45 outside Birmingham International Airport to "demand action to put a stop to the CIA's torture flights". This was one of several vigils scheduled to take place at different airports on the same day, ahead of the forthcoming presentation on Tuesday 27th June of a report titled "alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member states" by Dick Marty to the so-called Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Dick Marty Report
In total approximately twenty people took part in the vigil. After half
an hour or so, numbers had been increased by a few people from
Coventry. The conspicuous "Coventry Stop the War Coalition" banner
might lead the unwary to think that they had organised the event (see
photo).
The Public
The largest lettering read simply "CLOSE GUANTANAMO" and passing motorists started sounding their car horns in support before all the banners had even been set up. The horns continued intermittently throughout the two hour vigil.
In the first half hour or so (until they ran out) over a hundred leaflets were handed out to passing motorists stopped at the traffic lights.
An hour and a half or so into the vigil one of the group walked round offering cans of soft drink from a bag containing half a dozen or so drink cans. He told me that the driver of a coach had stopped just up the road and given them to him. The driver had said that his boss had asked him bring them to the people at the vigil.
The Police
Details  of places and times to meet had previously been announced on the Birmingham Indymedia website and elsewhere. One of the arrangements was to meet in the car park at the Midland Arts Centre (MAC) near Cannon Hill Park and proceed in several cars. I arrived there at about 11:30 BST to find a small group of people and a uniformed policeman on a pedal cycle who wobbled slowly past more than once and then stood looking towards the group from about 50 yards away and talking into his microphone. As the four vehicles drove past him out of the car park he appeared to be making notes. Later one of the group told me that this policeman had asked him who the white man was, referring to someone in the group.
When these cars arrived at the pre-arranged site for the vigil, the Air Cargo Centre entrance of Birmingham International Airport, already present was a large police van with "Caught on Camera" and "Mobile CCTV" painted on the side (see photo). Two police officers immediately approached the group. One of them asked how many people were coming and how many cars. He was pleasantly spoken and polite. He suggested a place to park and said that the airport did not want us on their property. He called up someone to confirm where the boundary of the airport was.
The police van with two policemen sitting in the front was still nearby in the entrance to the air Cargo Centre approximately two hours later when the vigil ended. In response to an explicit question, the police confirmed that they had stayed there because of the vigil. On one occasion during the vigil I had seen one policeman walking around amongst the group on the grass.
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Birmingham Campaign