Frankreich:Rémy Fraisse von Polizei ermordet während Protesten gegen den Bau eines Staudammes.

Frankreich: Rémy Fraisse wurde während Protesten gegen den Bau eines Dammes/Deiches von der Polizei erschossen am (26.10.2014)

France: Protester killed in clashes with police at the ZAD of Testet

- October 27th, 2014

Background info on the struggle against the dam in Testet: 1, 2

According to a statement from squatters in the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes, during the night between Saturday and Sunday the 26th of October 2014 a protester named Remi was killed in clashes that broke out after a rally against the construction of a dam along the Sivens forest in the wetland of Testet in the Tarn department (southern France).

Around 7000 people gathered in the ZAD (zone to be defended) of Testet, after months of police attacks and destruction of the wetland and habitations of those who defend the area. In the late evening and overnight, dozens of people attacked the forces of order that were protecting the dam construction site. Activists expressed their anger trying to delay the resumption of works, originally scheduled for Monday the 27th of October.

The cops fired rubber bullets (known as flash-balls), distraction devices such as stun hand grenades and fragmentation grenades, and tear gases. According to testimonies of protesters from the Testet wetland area, Remi must have collapsed after being hit with a grenade; then his body was reportedly taken by the repressive forces.

Prefectural authorities stated they did not want to comment on the matter before the official autopsy was made public on Monday. The government has already begun to stigmatize the protesters, in addition to trying to divide them in order to cover up what happened. But they know very well that, whatever they do, this death will have explosive consequences.

anotherv personal account:
Thousands people came from all over France and around 4 pm fights with the police began. The squatters are harshly repressed for weeks now.
Police using flashballs, deafening bombs and dispersion bombs (that throw little caoutchouc and metal pieces into your body) against the activists.
(Which I precise is normal to use against activists or suburban people in France, I mean it's not an exception...)
Everybody who come back from there says it's amazing how many people are hurt
(a friend of mine told me that people have hematomas all over the body, du to the caoutchouc balls and trucheons, that some people were hurt in the genital parts,
in the belly, etc). Saturday the fights with the police went on until 4 AM in the dark, in the forest. Between 2 to 3 AM,
the activists who were running because of a police charge saw someone fall on the ground. Another police charge run through him and obliged the occupants to run further.
From there they saw the body being taken by the police and later the state communicate they "found a dead body in the forest". His name is Rémy he was 21 years old.
All the bourgeois medias are underligning the fact that they are anarchists, wore masks and so maybe they actually earned it... Yesterday were wild demos in several cities.
In Paris people went in the touristic neighborouds screaming "The state represses, the state assissinates" and were stopped in front of l'Hotel de Ville in the city center
where part of them was trapped but finally released.
This morning some national medias like France info only spoke about the materials degradations on memorial monument during the demo in le Tarn
and don't even mention the fact that they happened cause someone died...

The first results of the autopsy were released yesterday (Tuesday). Rémy died because of the explosion of a "non letal" bomb
(infos about non letal weapons used in demos in France: http://zad.nadir.org/IMG/pdf/ARMEMENTSPOLICE_A3.pdf).
The police is analysing his bag cause the bomb apparently got stuck in his back (for what I understood) and they are searching for inflammable materials.
That means that they are trying to exonerate themselves saying that he was a "radical"...
Rémy Fraisse was also a botanist specialized in environmental protection and worked with several ecological associations...

His family pressed charges for volontary homicide which may help getting the truth about his death
... http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2014/10/27/la-tension-est-a-son-comble-dans-le-tarn-apres-la-mort-d-un-manifestant_4512957_3224.html

Sunday and monday evening were demos in a dozens cities. Hundreds of people gathered in Nantes, Paris, Toulouse (where the case is studied),
Montpelier, Bayonne, Rennes, Lyon, Dijon, Limoges, Nimes, etc. And tonight there is calls for new demonstrations.
In Paris we're gonna meet in the evening to organise the mobilization.

Politicians are trying to get involved: Cécile Duflot ex-housing minister and ex-secretary of the green party, actual deputy, called for the abandon of the dam project.
Same for Delphine Batho ex-ecological minister and member of the socialist party.

The president Hollande and the prime minister (ex-interior minister so chief of police) Manuel Valls called for peace, law and order and asked the other politicians
to be carrefull in their public declarations...
Activists from different collectives like la ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes, called for demos not to let this happened without consequences
http://zad.nadir.org/spip.php?article2684

you can find more detailed articles with regular updates on demonstrations and stuff in french:
http://paris-luttes.info/mort-de-remi-sur-la-zad-du-testet
https://paris-luttes.info/suivi-de-la-mobilisation-en-region
also:
http://www.reporterre.net/spip.php?article6496

more infos on the website of the occupants of la ZAD du Testet
(in french ZAD is a territory status that allows the state to expropriate people from their houses and lands to build project of "public utility"-
that's why there is several ZAD in France; we turned this into Zone to Defend):
http://tantquilyauradesbouilles.wordpress.com/