Along the last 20 kms of roads from the railhead at Dannenberg to the dump compound in Gorleben 2,000 activists tried to hold up the truck convoy which moved at night.

The local opposition umbrella group reports police injuring 146 protesters, 11 of whom needed hospital treatment, four for serious head injuries. About a hundred demonstrators were detained during the night.

Protesters know they can’t prevent the consignments, but aim to make them as expensive as possible as a wake-up call to the public and politicians. Policing costs about 50 million euros for each consignment.

The 12 Castor caskets now brought raised to 80 the number in a concrete hall protesters deride as no safer than a farm barn. Almost 140 are to be there ultimately.

The last 20 kilometres by 12 heavy-duty trucks – each casket weighs 100 tonnes – were secured by thousands of police. The last entered the dump compound at 6 a.m. Monday.

Shortly before the truck convoy started out from a reloading railhead at Dannenberg, police dispersed a sitdown road blockade by hundreds of activists that had lasted for several hours.

Most of the protesters did not resist and let themselves be carried off. At other places concrete pyramids with chained-on people were used to block the route as long as possible.

Nuclear opponents accuse the Social Democrat environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, of duplicity over his alleged search for a final waste storage site.

They charge that every additional transport of waste to Gorleben makes it more likely that an exploratory salt mine dug there especially for the purpose next to the surface storage hall for hundreds of millions of euros will be chosen as the final dump. Three more transports are planned by 2010.

The Castors contain unusable remnants of spent fuel elements from German power stations which have been processed at the La Hague plutonium factory in Normandy, from where the train started out early on Friday evening.

German politicians and the power industry argue that Germany is contractually bound to take the waste back. Opponents deny this, countering that the agreement is between companies and not binding in international law, and if they wanted to, politicians could renegotiate.

Pick up earlier reporting at  http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/11/161856.shtml.


Farmer and son threatened at pistol point

By Francis Althoff and Dieter Metk 14.11.2006 - 20:31

Considerably more people than last year demonstrated against the Castor transport with imaginative actions. Sigmar Gabriel, don’t touch the moratorium on exploring the Gorleben salt deposit! We won’t stand for a further expansion of the “final repository” under a false flag!

Since the end of the first location studies in 1982 geologists have been warning against storing highly radioactive atomic waste in the Gorleben salt dome. Also assessed by the criteria of the Federal Agency for Geosciences and Raw Materials for a final repository Gorleben is ruled out as the location. Additionally, the same finding is made by a new study commissioned by Greenpeace. The rock cover over the salt is inadequate.

Gorleben is not suited for a final repository. All governments, regardless of their colours, are ignoring the problem out of fear of money demands by the nuclear industry. The announcement that there is a comparative and open search for a final repository is a delaying tactic.

In the parliamentary debate on 19 October the "environment angel”, federal environment minister Gabriel, has outed himself as an “atomic policy Beelzebub”. Although he talks about wanting to start a search for an “alternative” location, he wants to permit completion of the exploration of the Gorleben salt deposit at the same time.

We will continue with determination and imagination to create pressure on the streets. We will struggle for the constitutional rights to freedom of assembly and bodily inviolability to be safeguarded as the highest to be protected good.

In several situations during this Castor transport the police leadership did not have their personnel under control. For example, plainclothes officers, pistol drawn, dragged a farmer out of his VW van and injured him and his 15-year-old son with pepper spray at Quickborn. In Metzingen Police searched for hours for a lost pistol which was ultimately handed back to them by observant nuclear opponents. In both cases the media releases and depictions by the police were false.

The population, who have to expose themselves year after year to this state of emergency to exercise their constitutional right to freedom of assembly, have to be able to rely on not being endangered on top of everything else by inexperienced and nervous young police personnel.

Who would have thought at the first Castor transport into the Wendland in 1995 that in year 10 it would still be necessary to assign more than 16,000 police to guard the pure capital interests of the atomic power industry. That strengthens us in our success.

Again and again courts have ruled police actions illegal afterwards. Despite these legal successes against police arbitrariness and assembly bans, they are increased from year to year. We will show this atom and police state the red card!

Francis Althoff #49 5843 986789 + #49 0170-9394684
Dieter Metk #49 5841-6451 + #49 0170-2637782

Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz Lüchow Dannenberg
Drawehner Str. 3 29439 Lüchow
Tel: 05841-4684 Fax: 3197
Press spokesman: Francis Althoff 05843 986789
 bi-presse@t-online.de
www.bi-luechow-dannenberg.de

Translated by Diet Simon


Pick up the main thread at  http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/11/161877.shtml


Post-mortem to share experiences

Francis Althoff 14.11.2006 - 20:34
The Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz Lüchow Dannenberg will host a post-mortem gathering on Friday (17.11.) starting 7 pm in Cafe Grenzbereiche in Platenlaase. The meeting is to offer an opportunity to share experiences and gain an overview of what happened. All groups and individuals, from the first aid providers to the rope acrobats of Robin Wood, are invited to tell their stories.

Francis Althoff #49 5843 986789



Chain-on farmers’ attorneys arrested


Thomas Hauswaldt 14.11.2006 - 21:06
Two Hamburg attorneys, Martin Lemke and Thomas Hauswaldt, were arrested as they did their job during the Castor transport. They were in Langendorf with four members of the Farmers’ Emergency Group who had chained themselves to a concrete pyramid. When they refused to leave their clients as ordered to by the police, police arrested them.

The farmers’ group regards it as scandalous that the state power goes so far as to deny the demonstrators their legal aid. The law-governed state is being sacrificed ever more to the economic interests of the atomic industry.

Contact: Thomas Hauswaldt #49 0171 641 6800


12 November 2006



For and against clowns


Activists (translated by Diet Simon) 14.11.2006 - 23:16
Comments about activist clowns on IndyMedia Germany 14 November. Pictures at  http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/11/161969.shtml.


Michael’s birthday


By beobachterin 14 Nov

The Clownarmy was conspicuous as a refreshingly witty and effective action form. At the starting rally at the dump compound on 11 November they lined up alongside police and aped their body stances. Amused passers-by stopped and asked the police for a smile. In Gleneagles, the G8 venue in Scotland, the clownsarmy action form was also represented already. Making fun of police is the weapon of the little people. Just like by court jesters, the state might is mirrored, opening up new scopes for action. The clowns were at Harlingen on Sunday shortly before the radiating train was due in the Göhrde forest. One ran up the embankment to the rails and called to the police, “It’s the birthday of one of you today! His name is Michael. Which one of you is it? We’re coming to congratulate!” Two other clowns ran after him and called out to us forest strollers, “They’re so lonely up here, come and help them celebrate!”, and back up again, “So where’s Michael?” I’m already happily anticipating many clowns next summer at the Baltic Sea (G8 in Heiligendamm).



Hats off to clowns, but stick to needling the cops


By ebenfalls amüsiert 14 Nov
At some point the screeching really got on my nerves. But it was effective. One thing I didn’t think was so good was that the clowns were always trying to involve others in their action form and that was a bit bothersome when you had something else planned and had to resist these advances. So, dear clowns, I doff my hat to you, but next time get on the nerves of only the cops. See you at Heiligendamm.


Distracted other activists


By abgelenkte 14 Nov
All in all I found the clowns quite good when they kept the cops busy. However, every time I saw the clowns present in the Wendland they kept “us” busy and kept “us” from our work, as if they wanted to do their show and everyone should watch them. If that’s the intention you might as well erect a stage next to the railway track and have a concert on it! Wherever I saw the clowns, people were no longer doing anything and only watched the clowns screeching and doing their thing. Dear clowns, next time please target only the cops and thereby open up spaces for the other people, instead of the other way around.



Some clowns just don’t get it


By keinclown 14 Nov
It appears that some clowns think they have to engage everyone involved with something or other. At the schoolkids’ demo in Lüchow clowns danced around our group several times to get us to laugh, to join in or whatever. They responded to our irritated comments with grimaces and mockery and called us spoilsports. It gets on your nerves! As tactical theatre the clowns are a great idea, but not to entertain demonstrators, push any behaviour on them or anything of that kind.


Not my revolution if I can’t dance…..


14 Nov Dear people, if you think resistance can’t be fun that’s your thing, but leave the people in peace who don’t think like that. There were moments when I was really happy about little amusements, especially when we sat for nine hours in the cold night in a road blockade and the clowns did their show. I think that takes more guts than we "Stino" (translator doesn’t know the term) activists had to find. So, hats off to you, clowns, and keep it up.



Amusing and motivating


By lachen 14 Nov
Hay, I found it a super action to marshal such a clownsarmy in front of the muses palace and I have to say it didn’t bother me when they danced around me, in fact it lifted my mood and motivated me to keep going.



Simply delicious


By Amüsierter 14 Nov
I love this form of action. It’s fun to watch. It empowers other forms of action, makes the cops look ridiculous and distracts them. More of it!



Thanks a lot


By holzfäller 14 Nov
Dear clown army, you’re super! Many thanks for your great ideas and actions. Please come again next time!

Pictures at umbruch-bildarchiv 14.11.2006 - 23:24
 http://www.umbruch-bildarchiv.de/bildarchiv/ereignis/castor2006.html



“Gorleben is set for final dump”


Diet Simon 15.11.2006 - 00:58
A leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrat (CDU) party has said “actually Gorleben is already determined as the final repository”. The Elbe-Jeetzel-Zeitung newspaper circulating in the county where Gorleben is located reports that Volker Kauder, head of the CDU group in the national parliament, said this at a caucus meeting of the Lower Saxony state branch of the CDU in Adendorf. Asked by journalists how the promised open-ended search for the final repository site could be done without looking at other options, Kauder replied: “Gorleben has a lot going for it. That’s why the exploration there should be completed. I don’t believe that Gorleben is unsuitable.”

Newspaper's report  http://www.castor.de/presse/ejz/2006/november/14e.html




Life-threatening policeman


activist, translated by Diet Simon 15.11.2006 - 07:35
In the forest near Harlingen, shortly before the Castor train drove past. While two police climbers tried to get two other (activist) climbers out of a tree, more people also tried to climb up the tree.

Every single one of them was brutally pushed back/down by a policeman. A “measure” that was not only unnecessary – the police could have easily posted a cordon round the tree – but also life-threatening for the climbers. The tree stands almost on the peak of a 7-8 metre high, very steep railway embankment. If anyone had fallen backwards on to their back or neck, very serious, life-threatening injuries would have been likely.

The policeman who was doing this – it was always the same one – his colleagues, the squad commander and the attending contact officer did not react, however. Neither was the policeman concerned replaced by someone else, nor was his ID number disclosed. The man was not hindered, either, to carry on the same way at other climbing attempts.

The situation was recorded by several photographers and documented with a video camera. Please make these images available to the investigation committee or the civic action group and help to bring about that in future people like the officer described here will work in occupations in which they cannot endanger anyone else.



Protest briefs



Akte-niX (translated by Diet Simon) 15.11.2006 - 10:51
One thing has got clear: the resistance against the nuclear industry and Castor transports LIVES and can’t be silenced. How lively the resistance was, is shown by the following collation of protest briefs. It makes no claim to completeness and 100% accuracy but was put together with a clear conscience and to the best of my knowledge. People numbers and times are approximations.


10 November


11:30 Lüchow/Wendland c. 1,000 people take part in a demo by schoolchildren.

12:30 Bremen demo by c. 500 people in the city centre.

17:00 Hanover lantern march demo by c. 200 people.

19:00 Lüneburg demo by c. 400 people.

19:00 Dannenberg/Wendland c. 400 people demonstrated at the Castor reloading crane.

19:30 Pudlitz/Wendland 36 tractors und c. 300 people block a road.

19:47 La Hague / France: Castor train sets out.

22:00 Metzingen/Wendland anti-nuclear activists block the road.




11 November


Night in Normandy/France: Straw dummies on the railway track stop the Castor train twice.

01:25 Serqeux/Normandy: Rail blockade by French activists.

09:38 Conflans/France: Because of protest action I n Nancy, the Castor train is put on a different route than the one planned. The first time this has happened in France.

15:00 Gorleben: 3,000-7,000 people and 200 tractors at the start-up rally.

15:00 France: The Castor train is now two to three hours behind schedule.

15:15 Wörth am Rhein: 25 anti-nuclear activists demonstrate on a road bridge.

15:45 Hoenheim/France warning vigil by French anti-nuclear protesters.

17:00 The train crosses the German-French border two and three quarter hours late.

19:00 Metzingen/Wendland "lantern procession" blockade by c. 400 people on the federal road.

19:30 Stutensen/near Karlsruhe blockade stopped the train 25 minutes.

20:30 Oftersheim/Mannheim 11 activists block the rail track, stopping the Castor train for about an hour.

21:20 Göttingen: Warning vigil at the railway station by c. 50 people.

22:40 Darmstadt: Castor stops because of fireworks at the rails.

22:40 Wendland: Police discover railbed hollowed out by water.



12 November


09:30 Göhrde/Wendland: "Rally Monte Göhrde" c. 200 people repeatedly block the rails.

10:30 Posade/Wendland: 300 anti-nuclear activists block the rails.

10:30 Neetzendorf/Wendland: 60 anti-nuclear activists block the rails.

11:00 Dannenberg/Wendland: 100 anti-nuclear activists in a bicycle demo to Gorleben.

11:00 Leitstade/Wendland: 30 anti-nuclear activists block the rails.

11:30 Nahrendorf/Wendland: Rails blocked by objects, Castor train stops briefly.

11:30 Dannenberg/Wendland: 100 anti-nuclear activists at the “sitting test” in front of the reloading crane and c. 200 others no longer allowed inside.

11:45 Dannenberg/Wendland: 700 people on the southern route of the road haulage stretch.

12:30 Rail route/Wendland: Small blockades keep stopping the Castor train again and again.

12:45 Leitstade/Wendland: 4 Robin Wood activists hang by ropes over the Castor route, stopping the train for more than an hour.

13:00 Harlingen/Wendland: People again and again keep blocking the rails.

15:45 Dannenberg/Wendland: After many small and big blockades the Castor train has reached Dannenberg. Lüneburg’s police chief Niehörster says so far the protests have caused delays of four hours.

17:30 Dannenberg/Wendland: 350 people in a non-violent sit-down blockade on the northern route.

17:30 Dannenberg/Wendland: 350 people in a non-violent sit-down blockade on the southern route.

18:00 Splietau/Wendland: 300 people at a rally.

18:15 Gorleben/Wendland: 50 people in a sit-down blockade on the road near Gorleben.

19:30 Klein Gusborn/Wendland: Blockade by a concrete pyramid to which four people are chained.

21:00 Langendorf/Wendland: Another concrete pyramid with four chained-on activists.

22:20 Langendorf/Wendland: 200 metres beside the pyramid another pyramid action with eight people chained on.

23:15 Seybruch/Wendland: 4 activists chain themselves in a pipe under the road.

23:30 Splietau/Wendland: Another concrete pyramid with four chained-on people.

23:30 Dannenberg/Wendland: 800 sitting people blocking the north and south routes.

23:30 Wendland: Several registered and/or spontaneous demonstrations along the route.




13 November


00:40 Dannenberg/Wendland: The Castor truck convey is ready to move but blocked.

01:00 Laase/Wendland: 200 sitting people blockading.

02:30 Gorleben/Wendland: 100 people protesting.

03:00 Gorleben/Wendland: 4 Greenpeace activists hang in the trees along the route.

04:30 Dannenberg/Wendland: Only now the convoy can move out.

04:45 Quickborn/Wendland: People jump onto the road and briefly stop the transport.

Shocking:
167 people injured, among them 146 demonstrators injured by police…


Sources:
Eyewitnesses
Newswire and reports of the umbrella group BI Lüchow-Dannenberg: www.castor.de
Newswire of www.ContrAtom.de
Radio reports: Radio Freies Wendland, Radio Flora , etc.
Press and news agency reports e.g.  http://news.yahoo.de
Media releases of the police: www.polizei.niedersachsen.de/castor




Additions/comments by others


13th - 23:47 egal adds that at midday on the 12th a large barricade of trees was built on the railway track and the track was hollowed out. Police present were kept away with stones, fireworks and signalling munitions. Suddenly there were two clamps and brake shoes on the rails. As is usual in the Wendland, tracks alongside the rails and road stretch were made impassable for police from time to time with large and small barricades. In the early hours of the 13th there were burning barricades of tyres and wood on the southern road route. Here, too, police hurrying to the scene were attacked.


dabeigewesene posted on the 13th 23:53 that she saw two such actions Sunday morning in which trees near the railway line were felled. Despite cop presence this probably succeeded a few more times, it was still early and the cops were overstretched.


“Pretty good stuff,” read a post at 01:21 on the 14th, “but where are the times like 1997?”. “Is it that the cops have just learnt a lot more, have more technology, and so on, or have we just got fewer? I think there were more than 10,000 people on the road in front of the crane in 1997. Just the x-1000malquer blockade on its own held the road convoy up for more than nine hours. The Wendland as a whole was impassable for some time. Despite the most brutal violence and the use of at least four water cannon the cops needed nine hours to clear the route. For about a kilometre the road was filled with a sit-down blockade.”