From Friday 10th of November, around 20,000 German police were mobilised to guard the transportation of highly radioactive nuclear waste from France to Germany [Map] in containers called "Castor". The destination was Gorleben a village in northern Germany in a region called the Wendland. Protest actions took place throughout France and Germany, especially on Sunday along the last 50 kilometres of the route on rail, and on the early hours of Monday during the final 20 kilometres by road. For many activists this year's Castor transport was a prelude to the protests against the next G8 summit in Germany in June 2007, where many groups call for blockades motivated by past experiences in the Wendland.
Click here for daily Updates, further Reports and more Photos.Reports in IMC-UK: Police endanger demonstration of high school students | Nuclear opponents delay waste transport | Attack on anti-castor camp thrown back | More nuclear waste reached Gorleben amid protests.
Photos in IMC Germany: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Photos at Umbruch Bildarchiv
Photo Galleries: "Village of Resistance Metzingen" (de)
Videos in IMC-Germany: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Castor video gallery in kanalB.
Links: IMC-Germany | IMC Chiapas | IMC-UK Feature Castor Transport 2005
Pupils demonstrate against the expected nuclear transport in northern Germany.
Farmers get ready to join a demonstration with their tractors.
A helpless policeman next to the overran police fences
Protesters blockade the road next to Metzingen with a burning barickade.
Here officer .. can yo put this on the rail tracks please? :-)
The last 30 kilometers of the route around the village of Metzingen, where the train is divided in two, were widely considered as one of the main spots for this year's protests. This is the village where during the last few years of Castor blokades, hundreds of people from all over the country fought the transport along with many local people, thus becoming one of the hotspots of resistance.
On the other hand, most people were surprised with the fact that during this year's transport, police would try to force it through one of the most difficult parts of the route, the railway tracks from Lüneburg to Dannenberg [Map] even though the growing resistance in the region is well alive after so many years of protests, which have become, in fact, central to most people's life in the area. For this reason thousands of protesters were already mobilising on Friday for a mass blockade on the roads close to Dannenberg.
Daily Updates:
• Monday Nov 13:
After a long weekend of protests, actions and blokades that started on Friday and continued non-stop for almost three days, police spent fourteen hours on Sunday night and the early hours of Monday morning clearing road blockades and barricades along the final 20km long "nothern route". The trucks carrying the nuclear waste finally reached Gorleben at around 6am. The transport was completely stopped on the road at least one time at the village of Quickborn, as a result of a very courageous action by a small group of activists that dodged hundreds of police protecting the convoy, and which totally suprised the police forces. The protester's umbrella group reports police injuring 146 protesters, 11 of whom needed hospital treatment. Four people sustained serious head injuries. About a hundred demonstrators were detained during the night.
• Sunday Nov 12:
After beeing stopped several times on the way to Germany, the Transport arrived at Lüneburg at 10:00am. Serveral hudred people left Metzingen into the woods towards the railway tracks. Police forces gather with heavy equipment and helicopters.
11:30am: 500+ people start a blockade on the tranport road at Dannenberg.
12:30pm: The train stops 20km after Lüneburg. Ahead several people hanging at climbing ropes over the tracks.
13:58pm: A group of Robin Wood activists have been taken down from the trees [pics] and arrested.
14:03pm: People are blockading the tracks near Harlingen [Pics 1 | 2], police disperse crowd, Castor train passed Göhrde station.
14:10pm: Police use pepper spray near Harlingen.
16:00pm: After passing the town of Hitzacker, Castor arrived at Dannenberg station where it will be moved onto trucks.
17:00pm: Several hundred people are gathering on the road on the Castor's route near the town of Splietau. The road has been blocked since
7:30pm by four people locked onto a huge concrete block.
19:30pm: In Klein Gusborn four people have locked onto a concrete pyramid.
21:19pm: Another Pyramid with four people locked to it in Langendorf.
21:47pm: Another lock-on is taking place along the northern route. People locked onto the road tarmac.
22:22pm: One more pyramid with eight people locked to it in Langendorf.
23:34pm: A fourth pyramid with four people locked has been set up. Meanwhile there are two large sit-down blockades, one on each of the possible routes of Castor.
• Saturday Nov 11:
A blockade near the village Metzingen has been cleared at about midnight. The whole village of Metzingen has now been turned into a camp for resistance. Half an hour later a street blockade with tractors near Pudripp has also been cleared. 35 tractors were confiscated. Police took pictures and fingerprints of protesting farmers and recorded their voices.
1:25am: A new blockade is set up near Serqueux, France
1:00pm: A big rally starts in Gorleben with 6000 protesters, 200 tractors and a front-end loader [pics]. At the end of the rally skirmishes with police took place, barricades were built and set on fire. The fires were extiguished at about 5pm.
3:00pm: Protests on the rail tracks started in Hoenheim, near Strasburg
5:00pm: The Castor train arrives at the German-French border, 100 are protesting in Wörth. An Helicopter is flying over the Castor train. It is already about 4 hours late by now. Evening: People blockade roads in Metzingen with burning barrikades. Police forces storm into the Village Camp without any given reason but withdraw later after resistance [Report]. 5 people arrested. Read a Summary of the actions.
• Friday Nov 10:
More than 600 pupils demonstrated in the destrict town of Lüchow, even though the protest had been banned by the local authority. At the end of the demonstration, students tried to force open the gates to the police barracks as police forces retreated inside. On the other hand it is confirmed that the transport has started in France this evening.
• Thursday Nov 9:
In the late afternoon an attack took place to a railway south of Hannover by placing a hook in the contact wire, causing damage to several trains. In Metzingen several farmers fooled the police for a while by placing their heavy tractors on the railway tracks.
Mainstream media reports heavy clashes between demonstrators and police close to the town of Dannenberg during the night, resulting in several injuries in both demonstrators and police.
On the other hand, several smaller actions and demonstrations have already taken place during the last few weeks all over Germany. These are widely seen as a "warming up" for the weekend of actions and protests to come.
On the 6th of October a sabotage took place to a radio transmission tower close to Metzingen which had been used by police during previous Castor transport, causing damages to around 30,000 euros.
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