13.01.2009
+++The Owner of the Frankfurt Airport, Fraport, started today the extension of the airport to build a new runway+++woodcamp still exists+++more than a hundred people on a spontaneous demonstration in the wood
Frankfurt Airport is the biggest german airport and one of the biggest in europe. Some may remember the fierce controversies in the 1980s when a new runway was built (known as “Startbahn 18 West”, in those times more than 30.000 people gathered in the wood to fight against the extension an police brutality). Now the owner of the airport, the Fraport corporation, wants to build a new runway because they think they need more capacities to compete against the other european airports. The new runway will be in the north-side of the Frankfurt Airport, in the forest of Kelsterbach.
After Fraport began on Tuesday to fence the forest of Kelsterbach in, the day X chain alarm was triggered. The fence is the first building in the forest and serves to limit and eventually closure of the forest area, which the Fraport wants to be cleared until the end of February. The forest area is only transferred in the possession of Fraport since yesterday. Before the fence was setup, one hundred cops searched the area for protestors. The Hüttendorf (protestors camp) itself has not yet been affected by the fencing.
Already in the morning police showed up in the Hüttendorf and the camp was searched. The searches can be understood as part of a preparation for the eviction to be, because the police surveyed some areas and made the photographs. After the search officers in vehicles and on foot patroled through the adjacent forest.
At the same time different engineering firms began under the surveillance of hundred vops with measurements and the fencing in of the wood-area, which will be cleared first. The company signs of the vehicles were covered. The construction workers etahblished a 200-meter fence.
By 18 o’ clock more than a hundred people came togehter to a spontaneous demonstration in the wood. The demonstration went with flares to the point, whre the fence was built, there are rumours, which say the fence was partly dismantled. Constant surveillance of the fence was not evident and the police had disappeared from the forrest.
According to media reports, Fraport will wait with the clearing of the 300-hectare piece of wood long enough to wait until the Hessian administration court has decided an urgent appeal of the village of Kelsterbach the airport expansion. But Fraport will start to fell the trees soon, because due to german “ecology” law they are only allowed to fell trees until the beginning of march.
For an accurate assessment of events please visit in the coming days the Internet sites of www.waldbesetzung.blogsport.de or www.flughafen-bi.de
It the coming days there will be further actions. Tomorrow at 18 clock some initiatives (environmentalist, social groups, antifascists) will demonstrate together against the politics in Hesse (thats the federal state Frankfurt is in and which politicians did decide to allow the airport extension) in Frankfurt.
Next Saturday there will be a demonstration at the airport.
The resistance against the airport expansion will not be finnished with the building of the fence, not with the grubbing-up, not with the evacuation of the “Hüttendorf” – We will continue to resist the airport as a climate killer, as a source of noise and environmental pollution as well as an important element of European racist foreclosure system.
The fence will fall – Smash Fraport!
Solidarity with and greetings to Climate rush – Stop airport extensions worldwide!