Combat-exercise ongoing in Norrbotten although civilians inside the testrange

Early this morning, peace-activists from the anti militaristic network Ofog in Sweden walked into the military testrange NEAT to prevent ongoing combat-exercise in the very north of Sweden.
Ofog has informed the Swedish Armed Forces that the activists are inside of the area. Despite this, the combat-exercise proceeds.

- Half past nine a.m. we hear air-fighters fly above us inside of the NEAT-area in Norrbotten. That military drops bombs over civilians in Afghanistan is nothing new - but now they also do it here in Sweden, says Gunnar Svensson, 77, illustrator and one of the persons inside the area.

Right now Nordic Air Meet, the second largest military air-exercise in Europe, is carried out. 7 countries and 65 air-fighters from USA, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Great Britain and Sweden.

- Right now, Sweden is implementing a new investment on new JAS-planes with a bill of 90 billions, it’s completely indefensible that financial resources should be used for military activities. Every minute the U.S. is spending 2,1 million dollars on military activities - for the same amount of money, 16 new schools could be built in Afghanistan - every minute, says Cattis Laska, 28, social-worker and one of the activists inside the combat-testrange.

The combat-exercise is carried out at NEAT, North European Aerospace Testrange, which is a military area that during the exercise extends from Lycksele in south to Kiruna in north - more than one-third of Sweden’s area. Except from military combat-exercises there are weapons being developed and tested such as unmanned planes, so called drones, at NEAT.

The antimilitaristic network Ofog is running the campaign “War starts here” to draw attention to how today’s and tomorrow’s wars are being prepared in Sweden - and concretely prevent the war preparations.

Films from the action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7UzsKxjXw4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIhVeWW_tac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1AIyVM8N5M
http://youtu.be/_ICF7pOpNnQ

www.ofog.org
Twitter: ofog
Phone: 0046(0)733815361