Gorleben police state settles in
Police are again setting up “special law” zones for themselves less than two weeks before another transport of nuclear waste is due in the north German village of Gorleben. Visitors experienced this last Sunday on their way to an historic Germanic gravesite at Grünhagen. Police had erected barriers at all railway crossings between Leitstade and Hitzacker. People were allowed to cross only on foot, singly and after personal data were taken down.
Everyone who wanted to pass in either direction had to bow to this procedure, for which no explanation was given.
The crossings were not accessible by car anyway because far away police vehicles already blocked roads and tracks. For hours every person and every vehicle was video-filmed.
A spokeswoman for the “Resistance Nest Metzingen”, which had invited people to visit the gravesite, protested against “this widespread and general curtailment of the basic right to freedom of movement.
“Two weeks before the transport we are not even making use of our special rights as demonstrators under Article 8 of the Constitution,” she said.
“We are here demanding what are givens in 11 months of the year: use the forest for leisure, harvest wood, use paths.”
The umbrella Gorleben resistance group, Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz, charges that police regularly use the Lower Saxony Defence Against Danger Act as a general empowerment.
And this although many courts have ruled against the police, highlighting the questionable legal basis on which police worked.
Even the defence against danger act, which had to be regarded as a particularly rigid police law, argues the group, demanded adherence by police to clear rules. “It is not enough for police to claim there is a danger they must counter in order then to do whatever they feel is expedient.”
A clear light is thrown on the self-perception of many police personnel by the statement of a policeman at the Castor rail track: “Your basic rights stop where our rights begin.” Not one of his colleagues would have contradicted him.
So, many ask what value do court judgements have if they don’t have the least influence on police behaviour.
Police are ignoring not just individuals’ rights. A local government also had its authority clipped.
A road from Harlingen to the forestry house Posade, which can normally be driven on freely, was suddenly closed off by police, claiming the road was in bad condition. Questions to town hall in Hitzacker revealed that the condition of the road had not just deteriorated. The authorities had not put up a sign up to that effect and said it had to go.
Just very recently the upper administrative court in Lüneburg ruled policed actions in November 2003 illegal. It laid down the following:
The blocking of all access tracks in Laase was illegal and a breach of the Constitution’s Article 2 Paragraph 2 that the freedom of the person is inviolable.
Persons present in a particular area may not a priori be placed under a general suspicion. People may not in principle be prevented from passing control points.
The prevention of breaches of public order may not be the purpose of setting up control points.
Practical difficulties in identifying troublemakers do not justify the breaching of the rights of third parties.
Demonstrations, events, human movements outside the banned corridor are permitted in principle. Of several expectable equally effective means the one must be chosen which least impinges on the individual and the general public.
Police decrees must not serve merely the simplification of police work, there has to be concrete proof. Mere suspicions or assumptions do not suffice.”
For questions: Elisabeth Krüger 05862 7460
Francis Althoff 05843 986789
Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz Lüchow Dannenberg
Drawehner Str. 3 29439 Lüchow
Tel: 05841-4684 Fax: 3197
bi-presse@t-online.de
www.bi-luechow-dannenberg.de
The crossings were not accessible by car anyway because far away police vehicles already blocked roads and tracks. For hours every person and every vehicle was video-filmed.
A spokeswoman for the “Resistance Nest Metzingen”, which had invited people to visit the gravesite, protested against “this widespread and general curtailment of the basic right to freedom of movement.
“Two weeks before the transport we are not even making use of our special rights as demonstrators under Article 8 of the Constitution,” she said.
“We are here demanding what are givens in 11 months of the year: use the forest for leisure, harvest wood, use paths.”
The umbrella Gorleben resistance group, Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz, charges that police regularly use the Lower Saxony Defence Against Danger Act as a general empowerment.
And this although many courts have ruled against the police, highlighting the questionable legal basis on which police worked.
Even the defence against danger act, which had to be regarded as a particularly rigid police law, argues the group, demanded adherence by police to clear rules. “It is not enough for police to claim there is a danger they must counter in order then to do whatever they feel is expedient.”
A clear light is thrown on the self-perception of many police personnel by the statement of a policeman at the Castor rail track: “Your basic rights stop where our rights begin.” Not one of his colleagues would have contradicted him.
So, many ask what value do court judgements have if they don’t have the least influence on police behaviour.
Police are ignoring not just individuals’ rights. A local government also had its authority clipped.
A road from Harlingen to the forestry house Posade, which can normally be driven on freely, was suddenly closed off by police, claiming the road was in bad condition. Questions to town hall in Hitzacker revealed that the condition of the road had not just deteriorated. The authorities had not put up a sign up to that effect and said it had to go.
Just very recently the upper administrative court in Lüneburg ruled policed actions in November 2003 illegal. It laid down the following:
The blocking of all access tracks in Laase was illegal and a breach of the Constitution’s Article 2 Paragraph 2 that the freedom of the person is inviolable.
Persons present in a particular area may not a priori be placed under a general suspicion. People may not in principle be prevented from passing control points.
The prevention of breaches of public order may not be the purpose of setting up control points.
Practical difficulties in identifying troublemakers do not justify the breaching of the rights of third parties.
Demonstrations, events, human movements outside the banned corridor are permitted in principle. Of several expectable equally effective means the one must be chosen which least impinges on the individual and the general public.
Police decrees must not serve merely the simplification of police work, there has to be concrete proof. Mere suspicions or assumptions do not suffice.”
For questions: Elisabeth Krüger 05862 7460
Francis Althoff 05843 986789
Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz Lüchow Dannenberg
Drawehner Str. 3 29439 Lüchow
Tel: 05841-4684 Fax: 3197
bi-presse@t-online.de www.bi-luechow-dannenberg.de
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Ergänzungen
deutschsprachige Fassung?
@Moderation: Mir wäre es lieber, wenn Ihr die deutschsprachige Fassung wieder öffentlich macht! Und könnt Ihr das Bild nach oben setzen? Wäre nett.
manchmal brauchen die mods ein bißchen
Castor diary
Police are again setting up “special law” zones for themselves, erecting barriers at all railway crossings between Leitstade and Hitzacker and allowing people only to cross only on foot, singly and after taking down their personal data. This despite a recent court verdict ruling such police actions illegal.
Inestimable damage to people and the environment must be feared from the flooding of the Cigar Lake uranium mine in Canada. Activists point to similarities with the salt mine in Gorleben they are convinced will be declared the final waste repository.
Anti-Castor action sites:
· Workshop of the clownarmy from 26-28.10 Meuchefitz
· 28.10 Rally and demo through Uelzen
· 28.10 Oldies sit at the train offloading station in Dannenberg
· 28.10 Taking places in Göhrde Forest
· 4.11 Demo at Brunsbüttel nuclear power station
· 4.11 Demo at Biblis nuclear power station
· 5.11 Bicycle demo Lüneburg
· 6.11 Night stroll in Leitstade
· 7.11 Fire and music in Hitzacker on the anniversary of the day French activist Sébastien Briat was killed ba a Castor train
· 10.11 Pupils’ demo in Lüchow
· 10.11 Demo Bremen
· 11.11 Demo Gorleben
· 11.11 Lantern walk Metzingen
· 12.11 Sitdown blockade in Dannenberg
· 12.11 Rallye in Göhrde Forest
Organisation
There will be camps and sleeping place info centres
· Hitzacker – Resistance Camp by the lake
· Metzingen – The village as camp (barns camp)
Info points/sleeping places
· Lüneburg The infocafè "Anna & Arthur" will be open again through the Castor transport days. Meals, warm drinks and infos will be offered.
· Dahlenburg – Info point at Oldendorfer Brücke
· Dannenberg, Essowiese – Info point and sleeping place list
+ + + + + 25 Oct Near Lüneburg police rolled out NATO razor wire, three rows deep, along the rail track. + + + + + 25 Oct Call to coordination meeting in Gorleben. + + + + + Call to demo on 11 Nov in Winsen on Luhe. One of the possible Castor routes is Nienburg - Verden - Rotenburg (Wümme) - Buchholz - Maschen - Winsen - Lüneburg. Bus to Gorleben laid on, fare 10 euros. + + + + + Call to demo in Lüchow on 10 Nov by school children under the motto "I dont go to school today – for a non-radiocative life for all”. Pupils intend to ignore the order of the local authority to attend classes that day, arguing that their duty to fight for a better environment is higher than the duty to attend school. Call to annoy the official who ordered attendance. + + + + + Call to a meeting on 2 Nov to discuss Castor blocking possibilities. + + + + + Call to a meeting of demo first aid providers on 2 November. + + + + + 23 Oct The Lüchow Dannenberg Citizens Environment Initiative (BI) puts out word that this year's Castor transport of nuclear waste to Gorleben will be brought forward a day from 11 to 10 November. The tenth such shipment will bring another 12 highly radioactive waste caskets from the French plutonium factory in La Hague. According to the BI, the Germans and French argued about the date. Whereas German Railways (DB) wanted the train to roll out of the loading station of Valognes on 10 November, the French were strictly opposed because of increased railway traffic ahead of a national holiday on 11 November. + + + + + 23 Oct Busy mobilising for weeks in Bremen. “Gorleben is everywhere” pasted over place name signs, banners in trees, leaflets to passers-by, call to 10 Nov demo in Bremen.