Sam Walton (born 1980s in London) is a British peace activist and, as of March 2020, Chief Executive of Free Tibet and Tibet Watch. [1] He is most well known for his arrest on 29 January 2017 at Warton Aerodrome, Lancashire on suspicion of criminal damage after attempting to "disarm war planes" which he believed were bound for Saudi Arabia. [2]
Walton is a Quaker and used to work for Quaker Peace and Social Witness. [3]
In September 2017 Walton was a key organiser of 'Art the arms fair' [4] an art exhibition designed to coincide with the Defence and Security Equipment International arms fair, it was supported by many artists including Banksy via a donated a piece called Civilian Drone Strike. [5]
On 30 March 2017 Walton attempted a citizen’s arrest on Ahmad Asiri who was visiting London, citing accusations of war crimes in Yemen. [6] [7] [8] Due to the protests and attempted arrest, the UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson phoned Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to apologize. [9]
On 29 January 2017 Walton and Methodist minister Dan Woodhouse were arrested after entering the British Aerospace Warton Aerodrome site after an attempt to disarm by damaging the Typhoon fighter jets stored there that they believed were bound for the Royal Saudi Air Force and therefore to be used in the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen. [10] The action was inspired by the Seeds of Hope group of the Plowshares movement who damaged a Hawk fighter jet in 1996. [11]
In October 2017 Walton and Woodhouse appeared at Burnley Magistrates court facing charges of criminal damage; both were found not guilty after successfully arguing that they acted for the greater good. [12]
On 26 April 2012 Walton interrupted the Business Secretary Vince Cable’s address at a UK Trade & Investment Defence & Security Organisation (UKTI DSO) Symposium. Walton took to the stage to condemn the promotion of the arms industry. [13] [14]
Throughout 2011 & 2012 Walton was involved in 'Count Me Out', a group who opposed to the company Lockheed Martin’s involvement in the UK 2011 census. [15]
Human rights in Saudi Arabia are a topic of concern and controversy. The Saudi government, which mandates both Muslim and non-Muslim observance of Islamic law under the absolute rule of the House of Saud, has been accused of and denounced by various international organizations and governments for violating human rights within the country. The authoritarian regime ruling the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is consistently ranked among the "worst of the worst" in Freedom House's annual survey of political and civil rights.
Terrorism in Saudi Arabia has mainly been attributed to Islamic extremists. Their targets included foreign civilians—Westerners affiliated with its oil-based economy—as well as Saudi Arabian civilians and security forces. Anti-Western attacks have occurred in Saudi Arabia dating back to 1995. Saudi Arabia itself has been accused of funding terrorism in other countries, including Syria.
Canada and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia share robust economic ties; Saudi Arabia represents Canada's second largest trading partner in the Middle East, a relation that was bolstered in February 2014 with the purchase of C$15 billion worth of Canadian arms by Saudi Arabia. Until August 2018, there were over 16,000 Saudi students on government scholarships in Canada.
Warton Aerodrome is located in Warton village on the Fylde in Lancashire, England. The aerodrome is 6 NM west of Preston, Lancashire, UK.
Bilateral relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia have been strained over several geopolitical issues, such as aspirations for regional leadership, oil export policy and relations with the United States and other Western countries. Diplomatic relations were suspended from 1987 to 1990 and for seven years after the execution of Nimr al-Nimr and the 2016 attack on the Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran. However, in March 2023, after discussions brokered by China, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to reestablish relations.
According to the British government, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have long been close allies. Relations between the two countries date back to 1848, when Faisal bin Turki, ruler of the Second Saudi state, formally requested the support of the British Political Resident in Bushire for his representative in Trucial Oman.
Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Khalid Karman is a Yemeni Nobel Laureate, journalist, politician, and human rights activist. She leads the group "Women Journalists Without Chains," which she co-founded in 2005. She became the international public face of the 2011 Yemeni uprising that was part of the Arab Spring uprisings. In 2011, she was reportedly called the "Iron Woman" and "Mother of the Revolution" by some Yemenis. She is a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman, and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize.
Seeds of Hope was a plowshares group of women who damaged a BAE Hawk warplane at the British Aerospace Warton Aerodrome site near Preston, England, in 1996. Their aim was to stop the aircraft being exported to the Indonesian military, for use in the illegally occupied country of East Timor. They left a video and booklet in the cockpit of the aircraft in order to explain their motivation.
Helen John was one of the first full-time members of the Greenham Common peace camp in England, UK, and was an peace activist for over 30 years.
Ayatollah Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, commonly referred to as Sheikh Nimr, was a Shia sheikh in al-Awamiyah in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province whose arrest and execution was widely condemned, including by governments and human rights organizations.
Dissidents have been detained as political prisoners in Saudi Arabia during the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s. Protests and sit-ins calling for political prisoners to be released took place during the 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests in many cities throughout Saudi Arabia, with security forces firing live bullets in the air on 19 August 2012 at a protest at al-Ha'ir Prison. As of 2012, recent estimates of the number of political prisoners in Mabahith prisons range from a denial of any political prisoners at all by the Ministry of Interior, to 30,000 by the UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission and the BBC.
The modern history of Saudi Arabia begins with the declaration of the unification of Saudi Arabia in a single kingdom in 1932. This period of time in Saudi Arabia's history includes the discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia and many invents. It goes on to encompass Saudi Arabia's brief involvement in World War II in 1945. Afterwards, it includes Saudi Arabia's involvement in the Western Bloc and the Cold War. It also includes Saudi Arabia's proxy conflict with Iran, the Arab Spring, and the ongoing Arab Winter.
The Yemeni Civil War is an ongoing multilateral civil war that began in late 2014 mainly between the Rashad al-Alimi-led Presidential Leadership Council and the Mahdi al-Mashat-led Supreme Political Council, along with their supporters and allies. Both claim to constitute the official government of Yemen.
On 26 March 2015, Saudi Arabia, leading a coalition of nine countries from West Asia and North Africa, launched an intervention in Yemen following a request from Yemeni president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi for military support after his forces were ousted from Sanaʽa by Houthi insurgents during the Yemeni Civil War. The conflict ignited between the government forces, the Houthi rebels and other armed groups after the draft constitution and power-sharing arrangements collapsed, despite progress in the political transition led by the United Nations at that time, leading to an escalation of violence in mid-2014. The Houthis and allied insurgents seized control of Sana’a and other parts of the country in September 2014 and in the following months. This prompted President Hadi to ask Saudi Arabia to intervene against the Iranian-backed Houthis.
Major General Ahmad Hassan Mohammad Asiri is a Saudi Arabian officer. He is a close confidant and adviser to Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and the former deputy head of the Al-Mukhabarat Al-A'amah and the former spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. He served as spokesman from the beginning of the Saudi intervention until 27 July 2017, when he was replaced by Colonel Turki bin Saleh al-Malki.
Human rights violations, committed by all warring parties, have been widespread throughout the Yemeni Civil War. This includes the two main groups involved in the ongoing conflict: forces loyal to the current Yemeni president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, and Houthis and other forces supporting Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former Yemeni president. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have also carried out attacks in Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition war crimes, backed by the United States and other nations, has also been accused of violating human rights and breaking international law, especially in regards to airstrikes that repeatedly hit civilian targets.
On May 20, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud signed a series of letters of intent for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to purchase arms from the United States totaling US$110 billion immediately, and $350 billion over 10 years. The intended purchases include tanks, combat ships, missile defense systems, as well as radar, communications and cybersecurity technology. The transfer was widely seen as a counterbalance against the influence of Iran in the region and a "significant" and "historic" expansion of United States relations with Saudi Arabia.
During the Yemeni civil war, Saudi Arabia led an Arab coalition of nine nations from the Middle East and parts of Africa in response to calls from the internationally recognized pro-Saudi president of Yemen Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi for military support after he was ousted by the Houthi movement due to economic and political grievances, and fled to Saudi Arabia.
The political history of Africa during the 2010s covers political events on the continent from 2010 to 2019.
The Delàs Center for Peace Studies is an independent body involved in analyzing issues like peace, security, defense and disarmament, founded in 1999. First it was linked to Justícia i Pau in Girona, Spain. The center was named after Josep Manuel Delàs, a Catalan military, social activist and pacifist, and chairman of Justícia i Pau. Before settling in Girona, Josep Manuel Delàs was commander of the reserve army and a member of the UMD. Josep Manuel Delàs had been linked to Justícia i Pau from the end of the 1980s until his death in 1999, and president from 1989 to 1995.
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