16 December 2009
Indymedia action timeline & live radio stream.
Today is the first day of the ministerial phase of the COP15 summit, that so far has made little progress. The Reclaim Power! Action, aims to take over the summit for this one day to turn it into a people assembly (call for action, latest press release). Similar assemblies have already been taking place outside the UN summit for a week, as part of the Klimaforum09 people’s climate summit with an estimated 25.000 people having taken part in discussions.
Early in the morning, multiple marches tried to make their way to the Bella Centre where the COP15 is held. The group meeting at Orestad station (Green) was surrounded by police and some were arrested [pic], but others managed to move towards COP15. A second block (Blue), of more than 1000 people, made their way to the Bella Center whilst resisiting attempts from the police to break it [Video 1 | 2 | 3 | 4] [Pics 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5] The bike block was blocked by police and redirected away. At the same time a group of protestors managed to get into the area of the COP15-Summit with a raft [pics]
Police have been repeatedly attacking the crowds with baton charges and pepper spray, as well as arresting protesters throughout the morning, and arresting medics [pics]. Corporate media report 200 to 250 arrests [video] Following yesterday’s arrest of Tadzio Muller after the Climate Justice Action press conference, at more spokespeople were violently snatched out of the crowd today. At 18:00 a CJA press conference will address the arrests of 4 media spokespeople that aim to limit their freedom of speech.
Meanwhile at the COP15 Friends of the Earth, Avaaz and Via Campesina were refused entry despite acquiring a second accreditation. Delegates staged a sit-in protest [pic, video], whilst 200 others from NGOs, indigenous people and the Global South marched out [Pics 1 | 2 | Videos 1 | 2] but police with batons and pepperspray prevented them from reaching the People’s Assembly. An hour later a protest broke into the COP15 plenary with the slogan “Climate Justice Now!”, and the Indian delegation burned its badges [vid].
The People’s Assembly took place at midday outside the Bella Centre [Pics 1], without those from inside the Bella Centre – they were prevented from getting out. After speeches the assembly decided to move towards the centre [vid] of town, while the police have been snatching people, and blocking progress intermittently.
[ Reports from corporate media: 1 | 2 | Video of whole Reclaim Power protest day ]
Timelines Indymedia DK | Motkraft.dk (dk) | Motkraft.net (se, en) | Global Project (it)