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Anti war-games protester charged with disturbing peace in Australia

Xinhua, July 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

An Australian man was arrested on Monday by police after he disrupted Australia-U.S. war-games near the Northern Territory (NT) city of Darwin.

The on-going operation Talisman Sabre involves 30,000 all-force troops in two different areas of northern Australia.

Darwin man and activist Justin Tutty said he waded out into water from beach north of the city where a landing operation was taking place.

He was protesting what he said was a growing foreign military presence in and around Darwin, where 2,000 U.S. marines were recently deployed, separate to Talisman Sabre.

Exercise Talisman Sabre is the largest combined military exercise undertaken by the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

Tutty told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he was trying to block the movements of amphibious hovercraft.

"I'm opposed to the growing foreign military presence in and around Darwin, so when I realised that the U.S. Navy were landing on my local beach, I took the opportunity to make a protest," he said.

He was in the water for around an hour, before being arrested by police and ironically charged with disturbing the peace.

He did not oppose the Australian U.S. military alliance, but said the current operation mainly practicing assault landings from sea was "over the top."

Three protestors were arrested last week for trespassing into the operation zone at the other war-games being held in Queensland. Endi