Edited direct action highlights from http://www.castor.de/ticker/index_en.html –
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
20 hours later than planned, after many convincing, creative blockades, the CASTOR road transport reached the Gorleben interim storage depot at 00:39 am on Tuesday 11 November
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Monday, November 10, 2008
10:33 pm The water cannons in Laase are to prevent people moving into the 50m no-go zone and onto the road.
10:16 pm Several hundred people are on the transport route in Laase. Police are using water cannons.
10:13 pm In Grippel the last activist was removed from the pyramid.
10:02 pm Colourful activity by 100 people in Laase to the left and right of the route.
10:01 pm Grippel: The last person is still chained to the pyramid and there are still 150 people present. The mood is good and there’s good music.
9:53 pm Only one tractor still standing in the way in Quickborn. It’s lost a wheel. Police are using heavy equipment. It’s estimated on location that it will take 30 minutes until the northern route (via Quickborn) is completely free.
9:40 pm In Grippel only one pyramid with one person chained on is left on the road. In Quickborn two tractors are left on the road that seem to be causing the police some problems.
7:44 pm Dear people, we’ve managed to make this the longest CASTOR transport ever. Super!!!!! Stay cool, we have plenty to celebrate.
6:07 pm Press release by the Lüchow-Dannenberg Farmers’ Emergency Association Against Nuclear Power. The chained-on demonstrators in Grippel demand negotiations. After 8 people chained themselves to two concrete blocks in Grippel on the CASTOR trucking route, the detachment of the protesters from the blocks is proving very difficult and time-consuming for the police. It’s estimated that the procedure could take several hours. The chained people, members of the Lüchow-Dannenberg Farmers’ Emergency Association Against Nuclear Power, want to negotiate with a representative of the Lower Saxony state government, say a state secretary.
5:45 pm In Grippel at the pyramid blockade police have detached the first person from the pyramid. The top of this pyramid was not sawn off.
5:33 pm In Grippel the top has been sawn off the pyramid pointing to Gartow. It didn’t provide the police with any clues. Nor can the pyramids be moved because the chained-on arms would be broken. A plan to lift them was given up.
Around 5:11 pm all Robin Wood activists at the waste compound were taken out of the trees by police.
4:13 pm From the Robin Wood rope bridge 300 metres from the storage compound are suspended not 2 but 6 activists.
4:08 pm Police have carried off all the sitters outside the waste compound. But the tractor is still there with two people chained to it.
4:02 pm The work on the concrete pyramids in Grippel is progressing poorly. A second demolition team is brought in. The people are as good as possible under the circumstances.
3:22 pm In the blockade at the waste compound three people have chained themselves to a tractor.
2:56 pm Grippel: The generator is working again and police are preparing to illuminate the action. 350 people still there.
2:53 pm Quickborn: Still 25 tractors on the road, 100 people, increased police presence. The climber is off the elevating truck but it took the police a long time. Two new activists suspended in trees.
2:50 pm Nothing moving at the reloading crane. The carrying people out of the blockade at the sorage compound is proceeding only slowly. The pyramids in Grippel with the people chained to them are still on the road.
2:41 pm The generator of the police in Grippel has broken down, leaving the drill stuck in the pyramid.
2:38 pm In Grippel police begin drilling open the concrete pyramids.
2:06 pm In Grippel police built a roof for the farmers chained to the concrete pyramid. Sit-down blockaders were not to stay there and were removed by police.
1:40 pm The climber on the elevating truck has chained himself on.
1:40 pm In Quickborn a climber has climbed from a tractor onto the elevating truck of the police. The police have been busy with this activist for a considerable time and now needs another crane to get him off the elevating truck.
11:20 am Police have made the 3rd call to vacate the area at the storage compound.
11:17 am In Grippel stand two concrete pyramids with four people chained to each. Currently there are 30 to 40 people there to support them. Visitors should bring coffee and cake and perhaps an umbrella.
11:11 am In Grippel members of a farmers resistance group have chained themselves to concrete pyramids.
11:10 am In Laase 150 people are moving in the direction of the dike.
11:06 am At the blockade of the storage compound police have made the second call to vacate the area.
7 am Now about 1,000 people sitting outside the waste storage compound in Gorleben.
Report in English on blockades on the tracks at Harlingen http://de.indymedia.org/2008/11/231949.shtml.
Claims of extreme police brutality in breaking up blockades under cover of darkness,
beating people with truncheons without warning and pursuing them up to 150 metres into woods at http://de.indymedia.org/2008/11/231982.shtml.
00:03 am: The three CASTOR occupiers were arrested.
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Sunday, November 09, 2008
11:52 pm Brutal dispersal with gas at one of the Tollendorf blockades. First Aiders and lawyers are not being allowed through.
11:39 pm Three people are sitting on the first CASTOR casket.
11:16 pm The people taken by police out of the demo in Tollendorf were taken behind police barricades into a cordon. The mood is relaxed. In the cordon the clowns are dancing. One can approach up to 50 metres outside the cordon.
10:21 pm In Dumsdorf 30 people are in a sit-down blockade.
22:11 pm The Robin Wood activists were removed from the Oldendorf Bridge, they were not injured.
9:40 pm Robin Wood has two actions. The first is at Oldendorf Bridge. Police threaten to cut down the two activists there. The other is in Wendisch Evern , where parallel to the track a large banner was hung.
9:19 pm 500 people sitting down at rail km 188.
9:04 pm 50 clowns on the track in Grünhagen.
8:57 pm Two activists are hanging from the Oldendorf Bridge, a third has just been led off by police.
8:52 pm Tractors are parked in Quickborn so that a car can still get through, but no CASTOR trucks.
8:12 pm Police have removed two people chained to the track near Eichdorf and are taking them to the prisoner collection point.
6:54 pm Around 6:15 pm route B126 in Metzingen at the snack stand was not passable. There was fire on the road.
6:18 pm The two activists in Lüneburg are still hanging in traverses next to the track. But police high rescue specialists are getting ready to remove them.
6:17 pm 60-70 people on the Oldendorf Bridge. In Metzingen tires are burning on the federal road. There is no more getting through there on federal route 216.
6:03 pm The blockade in Gedelitz at the Free Republic of Wendland managed to force the Hamburg police unit with its heavy gear such as water cannon to retreat all the way through the village.
5:33 pm At the dwarves party of WiderSetzen are 400 people. The mood is good and no dispersal is in sight.
5:27 pm Between Eichdorf and Nahrendorf 25 people are sitting on the rails. No police present. And at rail km 202 (i.e. further west) 70 people are on the tracks.
5:22 pm In Harlingen between rail kms 187 and 188 a giant party is going on with several hundred dwarves.
5:15 pm “Widersetzen” is back on the rails in Harlingen with about 150 people, this time at rail km 188.1.
4:53 pm 50 people at a chain-on action by two people at km 198.2 in Eichdorf.
4:30 pm There is a sit-down blockade between Oldendorf a.d. Göhrde and Eichdorf with more than 100 people.
4:22 pm There are again two blockades in Harlingen. A new one is at rail km 188.5.
4:15 pm The blockade at Harlingen at km 187.8 has been completely dispersed.
4:13 pm Clarification: The damage to rails at Grünhagen is in County Lüchow-Dannenberg, NOT in Grünhagen on the ICE express route Uelzen – Lüneburg.
3:12 pm Near Tollendorf at Km 188 about 100 people have made it on to the track.
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Sunday, November 09, 2008 at 15:02:08 (CET)
PEOPLE HURT NEAR TOLLENDORF: A blockade- action near Tollendorf faced strong repression by the police. Hundreds of people met in Tollendorf today at 7.30 to continue to the tracks, where the Castor-transport is supposed to go through later in the afternoon. We walked in a huge queue along the forest-path, leaving behind us minor tree-blokades for the police-vans. After walking about a 1km,there was a road in front of us .There, a lot of police was standing already, about 20 metres apart. There was no other choice than try to get running thourough the lines. Lots of people in front of us made it, but we saw some people getting caught or being pushed back by the cops. The more we waited, the harder it was to get through, because more police-vans were arriving all the time. So, the cat and mouse -game started. I saw a police reaching to a person in front of me and I ran across. There was nothing to be done for the people who couldnt get across. Some of them tried other routes. So, we continued towards the tracks, that were really close to us already. But, the police was there waiting for us wearing full riot-gear and having watertanks in the backround. We got settled to the tracks as fast as we could, blockaders spread the huge plastic-material to cover themselves, and we began digging the stones off the side of the tracks to get better resistance positions… And after announcing three times the illegality of our action, the cops attacked. They used violent force and started hitting people with batons. Many got some severe pain from pepper-sprays, which was being done straight into individuals’ faces. Water tanks were being used constantly. We got back to the tracks a few times until it was impossible to stay, due to the serious police-violence. So hundreds of people retreated and got scattered in the forest; some ready to look for other ways to get to tracks, some heading back to their camps to gain more power for the other blockades of today. We havent given up. The resistance continues! (Taken from http://de.indymedia.org/2008/11/231840.shtml.)
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12:50 pm The rail between Lüneburg and Dannenberg has been bent up at km 190.4 (nerar Grünhagen). Track workers are at the location and estimate that the repair could take quite some time.
12:15 pm The storage compound is blockaded. Sheeting was erected as roofs. About 250 people there. Also tractors. Mood is good. A culture programme is being organised. It is still easy to get through.
INJURIES FROM POLICE HORSE, BATONS, PEPPER SPRAY:
10:51H: The horse procession has started, 25 horses and 25 cyclists taking part. Many police present. Mood is good.
10:49h: The news conference of the blockaders of Berg will be at 1.30 pm in the Kulturhaus Mikado in Karlsruhe. At the assembly and vigil in Govelin one person was injured when kicked by a police horse. The injured man suffered a cranial bruise and a torso injury. He is being taken to hospital. Several people were injured by police batons or pepper spray.
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Sunday, November 09, 2008 at 08:43:20 (CET)
08:26 H: The Robin Wood people hanging in trees outside the waste compound are well. The Red Cross is keeping them supplied with hot drinks. Everything is peaceful. The Robin Wood activists suspended themselves yesterday evening while people gathered to sit down outside the compound to block it. 500 people have arrived in Tollendorf. It reported that the two men and a woman who had chained themselves to the railway track have been arrested by federal police. Before that they were medically examined. Police had protected them against the cold with foil. The woman was the last to be cut from the concrete block after almost 11 ½ hours chained to it. A police spokesman quoted a doctor as saying her condition is problem-free. Four other demonstrators who were also at the blockade point at midday were first carried away by police and later let go.
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REPAIRS NEEDED: 00:53 am Before the CASTOR train can move on, the rails and the track bed have to be restored. It’s not known at this point how long that will take.
ALL THREE CUT FREE: 00:25 am The last of the three protesters who had chained themselves to a concrete block under the rail tracks at Berg has been cut free.
00:06 am A video of the blockade of the Gorleben storage compound is viewable at http://www.graswurzel.tv/index.php?mov_id=43&PHPSESSID=b83e29fde90c2638c12cd3d9b382bf4f
00:04 am CASTOR train still stopped at Berg because one person remains chained to a concrete block under the rails.
00:03 am Still 600 people squatting outside the storage compound, surrounded by many tractors.
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Saturday, November 10, 2008
THE LAST FEW HOURS OF SATURDAY as reported on the German Day X newswire:
11:34 Four Robin Wood activists suspended over the road between Gorleben and the storage compound about 7 metres from the ground.
10:29 pm Blockade of the interim storage compound continues. 500 people and 12 tractors there. Good mood. Lots of police but holding back.
9:57 pm After nine hours no end in sight to blockade of the CASTOR train at Wörth near the French border. Federal police at 9:30 pm, almost nine hours after the blockade began, managed to release the second of the three chained-on people from the massive concrete block, said to be as big as one cubic metre. The train with 11 CASTOR caskets was due in Wörth at 1:40 pm. It’s been stuck in Lauterbourg across the border in France since 1.15 pm. The NDR broadcaster has a picture of the blockaders at
9:44 pm Signalling cables of the railways were set on fire in the morning at Hofgeismar, near Kassel. Police suspect a connection with the CASTOR transport. In Wiesbaden-Schierstein tires were set on fire near cable cabinets. Train services were cancelled until the afternoon.
8:51 pm Still 500 people and 12 tractors blockading the storage compound.
6:43 pm Police have cut the first of three chained protesters from the concrete block in Berg.
5:56 pm 500 people at the sit-down blockade of the storage compound, more coming.
5:55 pm A female protester handcuffed to a tree by police in Karlsruhe was released by court order. The court ruled there was no reason to hold her. She and two other people had demonstrated at midday in Karlsruhe-Mühlburg on a track near the railway line against atomic power. The CASTOR train was due to pass there in the evening. +++++++ 5:52 pm 60 activists, including clowns of the Clowns Army, are with the chained-on people in Berg for support.
5:50 pm The two men and a woman chained to the railway track at Berg had face masks put on them at 4:47 pm
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Saturday, November 08, 2008 at 16:39:55 (CET)
German Rail reports delays in train traffic in north Germany caused by arson attacks on railway installations in Brandenburg and damage done to signalling equipment. Repairs would take until the late afternoon.
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Saturday, November 08, 2008 at 16:11:42 (CET)
TRAIN STILL STOPPED: The three activists locked to a concrete block are still stopping the CASTOR train from continuing its journey. Police have not yet succeeded to cut the demonstrators out. They’re working with electric hammer drills to try to break open the concrete. The train is still stopped in the French border station Lauterbourg, about four kilometres from the concrete block.