Gorleben nuke waste transport protests banned

Diet Simon 24.10.2004 02:25 Themen: Atom
Deutsche Quelle  http://de.news.yahoo.com/041023/336/49hts.html


Assemblies and demonstrations during the imminent transport of 12 caskets of nuclear waste to Gorleben have been banned, reported the ddp news agency. Two weeks before the transport is expected, the district government (Bezirksregierung) in Lüneburg said it imposed the ban because of expected illegal road and rail blockades and “unpeaceful actions” before and during the transportation.
The ban applies to what is called the “transport corridor” and is aimed at keeping protestors away from the route.

“It is the duty of the assembly authority to prevent that the transport of Castor caskets containing highly radioactive waste has to be stopped because of illegal and punishable actions,” said government vice-president Bernd Hufenreuter in Lüneburg.

As well as the railway line from Lüneburg to Dannenberg the ban applies to the road route from Dannenberg to Gorleben as well as the side route through Quickborn. The general decree applies to 50 metres either side of road and rail, the area of Lüneburg railway station with access roads as well as an area within a 500-metre radius of the loading station in Dannenberg and the grounds on which the “interim storage” hall stands.

Applied for demonstrations will be banned until 8 November, ones not applied for until the end of the transport.

Before a similar transport in 2001 Germany’s supreme court ruled that restrictions on the right to assemble are commensurate if danger is prognosticated. The district government assumes considerable endangerment of public safety in the transport area during coming transports.

In Dannenberg the 12 Castors will be lifted off the rail cars onto trucks. This eighth consignment of German waste returning from processing in the plutonium factory in La Hague, north France, will be trucked the last 20 metres to the dump, which already contains 44 caskets waiting for permanent disposal.



Deutsche Quelle  http://www3.hna.de/index.php?page=a-suedniedersachsen&command=setvar:module-content-search:filename='/www/htdocs/hna/content/ausgaben/suedniedersachsen/563605026/index.php'

Man-high freshly painted X symbols – denoting “we’ll cross your plans” – on roadside trees and in front yards are again lining the trunk road from Lüneburg into Lüchow-Dannenberg county.

“According to our sources the Castors could already arrive in the Wendland [the local name] on 8 November, earlier than in past years,” says Francis Althoff of the civic action group, Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz Lüchow-Dannenberg (BI).

He expects 3,000 people for the start-up demonstration on 6 November. “From the grandma to the grandchild everyone will be there again.”
Preparations for the transport are going full throttle. While paramilitary border police are patrolling the rail route, 50 clergymen and deacons are preparing with a “mediation training” for the expected confrontations of nuclear opponents and police.

“The church plans to strengthen its peace work at the Castor transport,” says Dannenberg superintendent Peter Kritzokat.

For the first time the churchmen will wear white vests to be better recognised be in the thicks of things round the clock.

Police say they’ll deploy fewer people than before. “That’s in accordance with our present assessment of the situation,” says operation leader Friedrich Niehörster, director of police in Lüneburg. He did not give numbers.

Last year about 12,500 police secured the transport on its 350-km run through the state of Lower Saxony. Thousands more had guarded it on the way through France and the rest of Germany.

Niehörster said the number of what are called conflict managers is also to be cut. But these police with special training would be better deployed, he said.

Police last year injured 85 demonstrators in clashes in the Wendland – see  http://de.indymedia.org/2003/11/67094.shtml . For other recent nuke transport news see  http://de.indymedia.org/2004/10/96484.shtml .


Demonstration in Uelzen

A demonstration is being called for next Saturday, 30 October, 10.30 am on the Hammersteinplatz in Uelzen. After one or two speeches a procession will move through the streets, “hopefully led by a few tractors,” write the organisers. “Bring a good mood even though it might be hard given the occasion” as well as whistles and so forth.
The Castor train is likely to run through Uelzen again, as it did last year.
e-Mail:  info@bi-uelzen.de, homepage:  http://www.bi-uelzen.de.

A post at  http://de.indymedia.org/2004/10/96642.shtml informs about Castor camps in the Wendland for people taking part in various actions against the transport.

“At the Bundesstrasse (federal road) 216 the “widerStands-Nest Metzingen” (Metzingen resistance nest) will set up a barn camp – the entire village will become a social place for the resistance.”  http://www.castor.de/nix9/metzingen/metzingen_1.htm
“Not quite new, but expandable is our idea of turning the place where we live into a place of resistance together with people from Wendland and beyond.

“Early November is a very uncozy time for our resistance on rail and road. So, many dry places are needed for warming up, resting, eating and drinking, talking and laughing, so as to get out and about again afterwards.

“People from outside are warmly invited to turn up at the information and gathering point in the round-village. This is where our social place will be for information, food and drink, to meet and plan.

”From there you’ll find your sleeping and resting places in Metzingen and other nearby villages. Many barns and houses will again be open for all who come from elsewhere to demonstrate and resist with us. Bring insulation mats, sleeping bags and ideas.

”Local people will also see to it that you will actually arrive where you want to be. We don’t leave our people standing in the rain nor in a police checkpoint.

”Last time many liked the idea of joint resistance by Wendlanders and visitors. The mixture of witty action ideas and practical local knowledge – many of us know the area round the Castor route like our back pockets – has made many want more.

”The experiences in Metzingen and surroundings have shown that we can defend ourselves quite successfully if we poor our resources. They were not able to intimidate us or make us feel small, and many in this area proved courageous, full of good ideas and imagination.

”We succeeded with our actions to make clear our opposition to atomic technology and to disturb the smooth running. Despite a lot of fears, it was also a lot of un and motivate us to work on old and new ideas.”

Joint actions

“Ideas for joint actions are already being kicked around, but there will be plenty of scope for your own ideas and prepared actions. Movement and terrain games in fresh forest air are called for, open to all. Everyone sets their own pace and how far they want to go.

”’We’re working’ is our motto on 7 November and ‘we’re taking control – for a resistance nest at the railway line’ is the motto on transport day.”

Report in soon

“To make the idea of joint resistance against atomic power and police state becomes reality and hopefully fun as well, our wish to you all is to report in as soon as possible and preferably as groups.

”Some already know their hosts. For others early contact might help to reduce fear and insecurity and clarify many things quietly. Run-up actions in Wendland can be used to get to know each other.”

widerStandsnest Metzingen, Tollendorf 9, 29473 Göhrde,
Tel. und Fax. 05862 985991,  trotzalledem@gmx.net,
info telephone from camp build-up on 5 November:
0162 - 886 35 94

Other contact points:  http://www.castor.de/nix9/camps.html .
Camp in Hitzacker

There will also be a camp in Hitzacker:  http://www.castorgruppehitzacker.tk , homepage:  http://www.castorgruppehitzacker.tk .
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Ergänzungen

Sit blockade the "mildest means

Diet Simon 26.10.2004 - 14:45
Fines of 150 euros imposed on two anti-nuclear activists for blocking last year’s Castor train to Gorleben have been halved to 70 euros because in the judge’s view they chose the “mildest means” of protest.

It’s another partial trial success for nuclear opponents in the Amtsgericht court of Hanover, reports the "X-tausendmal quer" group.

Still in court, the activists stated that they would again take part in non-violent blockades of the imminent transport.

One of the issues the court had to clarify was whether the action of the accused posed a danger to safety and order as defined by the Railway Operations Code.

The accused activists, Ulrike Laubenthal and Markus Lauenroth, had wanted the physicist Oda Becker called as an expert witness. She was to prove that the safety and order of rail transportation is endangered by Castor transports, not by blockades like those of "X-tausendmal quer". But the presiding woman judge turned the application down because it was “immaterial” to the outcome of the trial, said nuclear opponents.

"It is quite worrying that a court does not want to hear what danger emanates from a radioactive atomic garbage train and simply believes this is not relevant,” said Lauenroth.

Despite this the judge cut the original fine by more than half, arguing that by doing a non-violent sit blockade the activists had chosen the “mildest means” of protest.

“We’re going to be in the way again,” said Lauenroth.

The trial is one of several in which the Amtsgericht Hanover is examining the legality of fine notices sent to participants in a blockade last November, when about 150 activists linked to the non-violent "X-tausendmal quer" campaign stopped a Castor train near Rohstorf in Lüneburg county by sitting on the track.

There have been extremely varied rulings by Hanover judges on the originally set 150 euros plus costs in more than ten completed trials, after most of the accused appealed.

They include an acquittal, several withdrawals of cases and fines ranging from bagatelles to doublings – always for the same contents.

More trials are listed at Amtsgericht Hanover for 12 and 17 November.

"X-tausendmal quer" is planning civil disobedience actions during the imminent transport on the last stretch by road between Dannenberg and Gorleben.
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