Nuclear Protests: Castor Train Is Moving Again

Transcript of coverage from Indymedia UK...

See... http://uk.indymedia.org/index.php3?resist=international

March 28 18:59 CET - The train transporting nuclear waste from the French reprocessing plant La Hague is moving again, being near Dannenberg where the castor containers are to be loaded onto vans, heading to the repository in Gorleben.

The train had arrived yesterday at Lueneburg with a few hours delay, but then the plans to proceed the remaining 50 kilometres went into total disarray. Several actions by groups such as x-1000, Robin Wood and Greenpeace, as well as by individual activists forced the train to retreat at 5am early today. At Sueschendorf, it took police 20 hours only to remove five Robin Wood activists who had chained and cemented themselves inbetween the railtrack. The last of the group was removed today at 2pm.

Earlier on Tuesday evening, the train had to wait for two hours in Lueneburg until the single track to Gorleben was free; a train containing the arrested from a 1600 strong x-1000 blockade was blocked by protesters. The train already had to change route, caused by a blockade in Goettingen. On Tuesday morning, Greenpeace activists abseiled with chains connected to the track from Seerau bridge and managed to stay six hours. Read more in yesterday's short summary in English by Indymedia Germany.

With a deployment of 20.000 police, the transport is secured by the biggest police operation post-war Germany has ever seen. Protesters had established camps in the Dannenberg area in the last days which were declared illegal, forcing thousands of activists to disperse in small groups over the freezing countryside. Next to a plentitude of actions by small groups along 50 kilometres of the track, 12000 people demonstrated near the station of Dannenberg on Tuesday evening. According to police, there have been 1410 arrests so far. Indymedia Germany reports of massive police brutality, several badly injured protesters after a heavy police charge at the infocamp in Dahlenburg, and two policemen injured by stones.

Police have issued a misinforming statement stating that Greenpeace activists had been protesting in a violent manner; Greeenpeace have denied this. Several journalists were prevented from accessing the sites of demonstrations and actions.

Demonstrations also are reported from Bielefeld, Hamburg, Leipzig and Essen.

Monday saw many small actions around Gorleben and in several German and French places. Protesters continued to amass in the Wendish region around the planned repository. On Sunday, protesters had surrounded the storage site. Activists blockaded and barricaded the railtrack at Leitstade, and demonstrators paraded through the village of Dannenberg. At this parade, fascists deliberately drove into bystanders, injuring an elderly woman and a child.

ENDS

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