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Bus of Finnish Ya Basta stopped by Swedish police

YB Helsinki | 10.06.2001 20:01

On Sunday (June 10th) Swedish police stopped 50 finnish passengers in Stockholm at the Viking Line ferry-terminal. The group was travelling to Gothenburg by a bus organised by Helsinki Ya Basta collective. These 50 people will participate in demonstrations and meetings during the EU Summit.

The police emptied out all the luggage but did not find anything to seize. The search lasted longer than half an hour.

The police announced, that there was a specific reason for this policy, but refused to tell what it was. The only explanation that they gave was that the passengers came from outside the Schengen-region (from Marienhamn).

Ya Basta considers the police action completely unfounded and unacceptable. These policies violate also the travelling-freedom, one of the basic rights of EU citizens. According to the agreements, freedom of travelling cannot be restricted without appealing to "general order, security or people's health", and this right does not depend on the purpose of one's trip. As Ya Basta states, it would be totally senseless to regard socially and politically active citizens as a threat to security. This incident is very exceptional also because of the Nordic passport-freedom, which concerns all Finnish people travelling to Sweden.

Ya Basta demands that the Swedish officials respect the freedom of movement and the freedom of assembly of all those who are arriving to Gothenburg. From Finland there are still several other busses coming to Gothenburg.

Earlier Ya Basta - Helsinki and some other groups have informed openly, that they will organise nonviolent civil disobedience wearing WHITE OVERALLS in order to make the invisible people's silenced voices heard. This action will take place on Friday, 15th of June (J15).

 valkohaalarit@ecn.org
www.valkohaalarit.org

YB Helsinki

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  1. but you forgot nato — orion noir