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Eyewitness report of action on bridge over the Aubonne

Irish Activists | 03.06.2003 15:12

An eyewitness report of the action on the bridge over the Aubonne- there is a lot of misinformation on various indymedia sites and in the mainstream press about what happened- this is as clear and accurate report as we could make, by 7 Irish activists who participated in the action.

Eye witness report of action at bridge over the Aubonne
by Irish activists involved in action at bridge over Aubonne Tue, Jun 3 2003, 11:37am
A description of what actually happened at the action on the bridge on the Geneva-Lausanne motorway, from the point of view of 7 Irish activists who participated in the action.
We arrived at the bridge at about 5am. It is a motorway bridge over the river Aubonne on the Geneva- Lausanne motorway.
We stayed under the bridge, preparing our banners and climbing equipment. Everything was ready by about 7 am. We were waiting to hear,by mobile phone, when the convoy of G8 delegates were leaving from Geneva. The plan was to suspend a rope across the bridge with one person attached to each end. This would make it impossible for traffic to continue on from Geneva to Lausanne. The other side of the motorway was not blocked.
The others involved in the action were to go up onto the bridge first, stop the traffic and give the climbers time to get in place.
At about 10.30 we got the news that the convoy was on its way and the motorway exits and entrances at Geneva and Lausanne had been blocked off by police. 10 people went up onto the bridge and ran along the hard shoulder to the Geneva end of the bridge.
We had three banners: One said "Vous arretez ici ou vous tuez deux personnes" (Stop here or you will kill two people) Another said "Ne Tirez pas" (Don't shoot) and a third said "G8 Illegitime" . We stood across the road with the banners clearly visible to the traffic and stopped the traffic. We also went up to the cars and explained to the drivers what was happening and the importance of not driving through the rope. Once the traffic had been stopped 3 people assisted the climbers to get the rope across the bridge and themselves into position. The rope had brightly coloured material and strips of foil paper attached to it to make it visible. This was NOT a banner drop- all the banners were held in people's hands and were only there to alert the traffic to the fact that there were two people suspended by the rope under the bridge.
Some of the motorists who we had blocked were quite angry and got out of their cars to argue with us. Some tried to drive through the banners and we had to sit on the bonnet of one car to prevent it from doing so.Motorists started to turn their cars around and drive back down the motorway along the hard shoulder. The police arrived quite quickly and
tried to get us off the road. The police tried to break our line and were very agressive with us. They did not want to listen to our explanation of what was happening and seemed only interetsed in getting the traffic through. They tore up our warning banner and took half of it away. We lay down on the road to slow them down, and when they removed us we ran up the road towards the rope. More police arrived from the other side.The police lifted the rope on the left-hand side of the bridge, where the British man was suspended, and started letting traffic pass under it. There was also a motorist, who was very angry, standing there with them. Suddenly, we heard screaming and realised that the rope had been cut. None of us saw exactly who cut the rope, but it was later confirmed that it was one of the policemen. Some people managed to catch the other end of the rope before the woman climber also fell, and we all ran to the cut end of the rope and hung onto it to prevent her from falling too. There were 7 or 8 people holding onto the rope. One policeman helped us hold the rope too, and though he asked his colleagues to help us on 3 occasions, it was only very reluctantly, after about 5 minutes that one of them did. This policeman was also the one who called the ambulance. The others remained on the bridge. Meanwhile, one of the activists who is a doctor had gone down to the river to attend to the fallen climber. She splinted his leg, made him as comfortable and warm as possible and assissted him in every way she could. At no time was she helped by the police in doing this. After about ten minutes, we managed to anchor the broken rope and set up a new rope. The new rope was let down to the other climber and she abseiled down it into the river. At around this time, first the fire brigade and then the ambulance arrived. There was an ambulance car and an ambulance helicopter; the latter was used to take the injured man to hospital, so previous reports that the police blocked the ambulance from coming through are untrue.
The climber is badly injured but will be ok. The other climber was treated for shock in hospital, but is now out and is doing ok.
The activists on the bridge were taken to a police detention center and told on arrival that we were just witnesses and they wanted to take witness reports from us. We were later charged with blocking traffic on a motorway and being pedestrians on a motorway. We don't know if the climbers or other people involved have been charged. There is a criminal investigation into the incident going on and I have heard, though not had it confirmed, that the policeman who cut the rope has been arrested.

Irish Activists

Comments

Hide the following 9 comments

Love from Lausanne

03.06.2003 16:33

Thank fuck he survived, the pictures and video film online show how lucky he was to be alive. You are brave people and we thank you for your efforts!

eve


No need

03.06.2003 19:35

It just goes to show that police can be racist scum with no room for thought when it comes to other peoples oppinions. At least one of them was understanding. There's hope yet! I have a lot of respect for all the people there and i hope it just makes people think.

Ed


re:

05.06.2003 10:49

ok so firstly, are you suggesting the police were blind? How exactly would it not have been completely evident that there was a person there? If they saw the rope presumably they'd see the big human-shaped thing hanging from it, no?

Secondly, are you seriously suggesting that dropping someone from a height of 20 metres is a price worth paying in order to resume the orderly flow of traffic?

If that's the only way they can clear the road then don't clear the fucking road! It's quite simple. There's over 360 other days the traffic can have the road to itself, why's it so important?

Thirdly are you seriously suggesting that you are so against this person's politics and the way he chooses to pursue them that you hope he will permanently lose the use of his legs for the rest of his life? Is that HONESTLY what you're saying? Do you REALLY mean that? Or are you just being a loser?

Fourthly, if you're such a right wing tory then what are you doing on this website?

fred


love to martin

05.06.2003 17:16

yo martin! this is a personal message, i know it's stupid to put it on indymedia but right now i've got no other way to join you and i think maybe you'll come on this page one day...
I just wanted to tell you how fucked we were when we heard the news about the pig who cut the rope as we were staying at the village... we didn't know it was you who was under, and first they told us the person was dead... i'm still not sure about your exact state because they gave us so many different informations... and i don't know who to trust anymore... i just hope you will be able to walk and that you recover quickly... you've been lucky my friend and they are just monsters (of course they knew you were under, those bastards!)... but you are a fighter so that's why you survived...
I want to thank you so so so much for everything you did for us, you've been of great help and brought us a lot of energy, I hope we'll meet again!
love from your blue crew partner!

love, one of your "blue crew" partner

did


to blue crew

06.06.2003 17:45

This might be useful for you?

[*****************************************]
if you want to get any messages of support, solidarity or love
to Martin, you can email them to:  love.to.martin@web.de They will be printed and taken to him in the hospital. I am sure Martin
would like to get as much support as possible.

thanks,
chelsea
[*****************************************]

someone


HELP NEEDED FOR MEDICAL & LEGAL COSTS

06.06.2003 18:13

This is a request for help to all of Martin's friends and everyone else out there who agrees that the policeman who hurt Marin needs to be held accountable.

Martin will be suing the policeman responsible for cutting his rope. He will also possibly be required to pay his own hospital costs.
Both of these will cost us a LOT of money.
We have opened a bank account for donantions. It is in my name as that was easier but it is totally separate from my own account and all the money will be used for Martin's legal case or medical care.
Please dig deep into your pockets, fundraise and network as widely as possible.

ACCOUNT DETAILS:
Dr J Bonnet
HSBC Bank plc, 274 High Street, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 1RU
sortcode 40 09 03
account no 61666517


We have to act in solidarity now or activists will continue to be hurt.

Janine

Janine


Power to you brothers and sisters

07.06.2003 14:27

So sorry to hear of what the cop did to you it's bullshit. Great action idea and by the sounds you did everything right theres just some people(cops) with no idea of safety. As someone a long way away from you people thanks for saying what I could't from Perth Australia. Once again more power to you..

Dave
mail e-mail: shante_02@hotmail.com