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Peace activist who smashed Dutch F-16s sentenced

December 16, 2005 (by Lieven Dewitte) - On August 10, Italian peace activist Turi Vaccaro smashed two Dutch F-16 jets with a hammer. He climbed over a fence at Woensdrecht AB and created for more than 5 millions Euro damage to two F-16s parked in a hangar.
When arrested he said he wanted to commemorate the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 60 years ago. Turi Salvatore Vaccarro belongs to a christian direct action movement which struggles for nuclear disarment. The action was a so-called "ploughshares action", based on the bibical prophesy of Isaiah "And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and learn war no more".

On October 27th he was sentenced to six months emprisonment and 750.000 Euro to partially compensate for the damage.

He completely destroyed the two cockpits of the jets and according to some sources, one jet needed to have the whole steering system replaced.

The F-16s belonged to a squadron at Volkel airbase where 20 nuclear weapons are stored. They were at Woensdrecht AB for maintenance.