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30,000
Police to Control German Citizens |
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| Wendish Resistance Against Nuclear Politics | For 20 years now, people are
obstructing the planned Nuclear Waste Disposal Center at Gorleben - consisting
of a drum storage for nuclear waste, the fuel element storage, the pilot
conditioning plant and the ultimate nuclear waste dump. It soon became clear
that it was not a matter of self-interest of small-minded citizens from the
Wendland, but a matter concerning the basic problems of using nuclear energy.
The search for possible alternatives became the focal point. In addition,
criticism did not only refer to the risks and consequences of the civil use of
nuclear energy, but the movement also incorporated the military use into the
protest. Since Gorleben stands for the disposal of nuclear waste, the disputes
relating to the unsolved questions of ultimate storage are in the foreground.
Although there is no ultimate dump for radio-active waste world-wide, waste is
continuously produced and so-called intermediate storage facilities are set up
designed to store the waste - for the time being - for an indefinite period of
time. Furthermore, there are problems and consequences resulting from the
reprocessing of the nuclear waste and the problems of the many dangerous
transports all the way through the Federal Republic. This is the context, in
which the resistance against Castor transports to Gorleben must be seen. This
resistance is directed against the disposal plants, in principle, however,
against any kind of use of nuclear energy. The protest points out to the risks connected with the production of nuclear energy and of the transport and storage of nuclear waste. Each transport is a risk. Each accident may contaminate a whole region and the people living in that area. Only very few of the cities and municipalities located along the transporting routes have concepts for the handling of accidents. The futurologist Robert Jungk has pointed out at an early stage, to what extent the safety risks involved in this energy production will lead to a deformation of man/woman through a restriction of the personal freedom, through repression, fears and spying on each other. The use of nuclear energy is connected with a reduction of civil rights and a restriction of democracy. Consequently, there have been lots of complaints about a drastic restriction of civil rights and the reduction of democratic habits during the days of the protests against the Castor transport. In addition to the risks of accidents and safety, there is the daily hazard deriving from the radio-active waste. Each Castor container stored at Gorleben increases the environmental load in this area, the same way as any further use of nuclear energy increases the amount of waste, having an intensive effect on the overall environmental load resulting from thousands of years of radiation for man/woman and the environment. The Bäuerliche Notgemeinschaft (Farmers against nuclear energy) writes in their ad just after the second Castor container had reached the Gorleben storage facility: Since 1979, the Bäuerliche Notgemeinschaft fights for the preservation of our living space, for the existence of our farms. Who will buy our products, who will make holidays on our farms, with the Castor building sending out radiation, who protects our children against leukemia? The resistance in the Wendland is aimed at all these risks. Time and again, politicians and media reproach the protesting people about the excitement over this specific transport, whereas transports are carried out continuously without the need for any special security measures. These reproaches do not reflect - despite the fact, that many other protests are denied - the dangerous complications, the possible catastrophes. This text is an excerpt from the Demonstration observations of the Committee for Civil Rights and Democracy. The brochure Second Castor Transport to Gorleben - The Atomic State shows its Force was issued and published by the: Komitee für Grundrechte und Demokratie e.V. Bismarckstr. 40 50672 Cologne |
| Transport of 'Kokillen' | Gorleben - The biggest police action in federal
republican history during the recent transport of highly radioactive
nuclear waste obviously still leaves questions open. For instance 95 questions
of the local member of state parliament Rebecca Harms (Green alliance), who now
has turned to state parliament of Lower Saxony. After the events in May Harms
anyhow considers it to be necessary "weighing up anew before a further
transport between the rights granted to the energy supply industry and the
basic rights of citizens in this country." Among other things Harms wants answers to the "Karwitz pocket" on the 4th of May, a few days before the transport. Back then several demonstrators were encircled by police with which reasons and what legal foundation happened this, asks Rebecca Harms. She also expects an answer to why solicitors present at the arrest collecting point in Neu Tramm were not allowed to speak with their clients for hours in spite of "power of attorney". The member of parliament also wants to know the details of the incident, within which a young woman was beaten up by several officials and had suffered a pelvic displacement. Harms is especially interested in the topic 'intervention of watercannon'. "Does state parliament consider such interventions with injuring and punishing effects as legal and appropriate?" And the Greens politicians asks further: "How does the state parliament value the fact, that police ordered the interventions of water cannons with the command 'Fire!' instead of 'Water march!' for pushing through the transport on the 8th of May?" Within further criticism Harms focuses on police action against the tractors of protesting farmers. The member of parliament: Which danger situation had justified that police cut off valves, driven screws into tires, destroyed ignition cables, sticked over ignition switches and smashed up panes of the tractors with truncheons? Harms also questions state parliament about the topic of covered and provocative steps by the police - of course with little prospects for answers. Hence Harms asks, how many telephone calls were bugged in 1995 and 1996 within the context of Gorleben protests and how many post controls had taken place. The Green politician actually asks for instance: "Is it right that civil intervention forces kindled a fire on the railtracks near the station Görde and that such forces have loaded their civil cars with stones and had collected those respectively?" And if they did so, Harms follows, with what purpose? |
| Be sure of something, the laws may be
different between Germany and the USA, but the same type of actions to guard
the interests of the commercial nuclear power industry will happen in the
USA. |
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| Germany Gears Up For Next
`CASTOR' Shipment |
The German Bundestag began debate
Thursday (February 27) on the controversial transports of nuclear waste across
the country to the Gorleben storage facility in the northern state of Lower
Saxony. The transports, in a special container called "Castor," have been the
focus of embittered and emotional protest in the past. The next transport to
Gorleben is set to begin in early March. In recent days, opponents of nuclear
power have demonstrated and militant groups have attacked rail tracks and
traffic signal systems. In an attempt to prevent violence, 30,000 police officers are to accompany the train or guard the facility, the largest police presence ever in such a situation. Federal Minister of the Interior Manfred Kanther opened the debate by accusing peaceful protesters of preparing the way for violent groups. The government will not "be forced to its knees," he said. The interior minister of Lower Saxony, Gerhard Glogowski, said insistence upon such shipments showed a "lack of political sense" on the part of the government because the shipments are so obviously opposed by a large majority of citizens. They are also unnecessary, he said, because waste materials can be stored at power plants, at least temporarily. The state of Lower Saxony is responsible for the safety of the shipment and also bears the costs. |
| Notes: Gorleben is a town on the Elbe River at a point where it turns north and is southeast of Hamburg in Wendland. |
