RAMSTEIN, Germany, June 11 (UPI) — Two thousand people formed a human chain outside Ramstein Air Base in southwestern Germany on Saturday to protest the base’s reported involvement in U.S. drone operations.
The group “Stop Ramstein – No Drone War” was protesting the base’s reported role in transmitting information between operators in the United States and unmanned aerial vehicles in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Syria.
Police estimated about 2,000 showed up at the event at the base, which is the U.S. headquarters for the Air Force in Europe. Organizers anticipated about 5,000 people would turn out but rain kept some people away.
“I’m very, very enthusiastic that all these people were willing to come out on a day like this to show how seriously they look at matters of war and peace,” former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, one of the rally’s featured speakers, said to Stars and Stripes.
Protesters had walked to the base from Kaiserslautern, Landstuhl and Ramstein-Miesenbach and linked hands.
Police allowed the protesters to block traffic leaving and entering the base for 10 minutes.
The protest was peaceful and there were no incidents, police said. Some demonstrators held anti-war posters. The rally also included songs, guitar music and speeches.
Protester Albert Weber, 72, told Stars and Stripes the political situation in Europe would be “much better” without Ramstein. He noted the U.S. military’s recent military drills in Poland. “They are going to upset Putin. With him, you never know what he’s going to do,” he said.
Former U.S. drone operator Brandon Bryant told Der Spiegel magazine in 2013 that Ramstein has coordinating Washington’s global drone war.
Last month, the U.S. carried out a drone strike in Pakistan that killed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour.
