PRESS RELEASE – 12.09.18

ACTIVISTS THROW ROCKS, POLICE ANSWERS WITH GUNSHOTS

Tensions are rising in and around the 12,000 year old Hambach forest.

This morning (Wednesday 12th of September, at around 10:30) a police-officer fired a warning-shot in response to an attack by masked militants allegedly throwing rocks at police-officers and -cars, on the L276, a.k.a. the Secu-Road.

The current situation in the Rheinish lignite-mining area, with the strong police presence, the forced isolation, the continuous controls, and the constant threat of eviction of the climate-justice occupation, is putting a large amount of psychological pressure on activists, as well as to some extent police officers in the area.

Therefore we are asking for a general de-escalation of the situation in and around the Hambach Forest, in order to give activists, as well as state-workers, a much needed break.

For this the first step would be the removal of the limited state-of-emergency, or the so-called “danger-zone”, and secondly a clear message from energy-giant RWE that the climate-justice occupation camp will not be the target of an eviction or any other police action.

The removal of the state of “danger-zone”, and the ending of the deployment of several hundred police-officers, would also free up large amounts of resources in the state of NRW, which could then be directed towards the much more pressing topic of a transition towards green energy.

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