A local council in Northern Ireland was today facing demands for an ethical policy towards inward investment, excluding companies involved in the arms trade.
Councillors in Derry were due to hear from representatives of the Foyle Ethical Invest Campaign at a special Council meeting. the group has been protesting against the arrival of the American Raytheon Corporation which, it claims, manufactures missiles used in Iraq.
A vigil was also being planned outside the Guildhall in the city involving human rights campaigners, a churchman, actors and a Green MEP.
Derry City Council has been lobbied by campaigners against the international arms trade to adopt an ethical policy toward inward investment, ensuring the companies which set up factories are not involved in producing weapons of mass destruction.
The Foyle Ethical Campaign delegation at today's special Council meeting includes Iraqi exile and engineer Mr Abdul Rahman Al-Jibouri and Mr Richard Moore of the Children in Crossfire charity.
Mr Moore was blinded at the age of 10 when he was struck by a rubber bullet fired by a British soldier in Derry.
Irish Green MEP Ms Patricia McKenna, Church of Ireland cleric the Rev Brian Smeaton, Bloody Sunday campaigner and author Don Mullan and actor Donal O'Kelly, who starred in the film of Roddy Doyle's The Van, were taking part in a vigil during today's meeting.
Ms McKenna said she was travelling to the city to
support the campaign because she felt a society like Northern Ireland, which has suffered from weapons, should not be manufacturing them.
"Raytheon has been involved in the manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction, including the Tomahawk Cruise missile," she said.
"I think it is wrong that Northern Ireland should feel compelled to accept investment from a corporation like this when you consider all the suffering that weapons have inflicted on the Province over the years."