Published in French on 20 June 2018
This morning, 20 June, a daybreak, the police arrested about ten anti-nuclear activists in the Bure region (eastern France) and elsewhere.
One of those arrested is Etienne Ambroselli, a lawyer at the Paris Appeal Court since 2001, a specialist in questions of environmental law, the legal advisor of the "Nuclear Phase-out Network" and the defenser of the activists at Bure... So a real Paris barrister, no less... Others were various activists who we can name here only by initials: A, J, A, C, M, M, C… because we don’t know whether or not they want their names revealed in the media.
The common feature is that they are prominent in the French anti-nuclear movement. Some have been placed under house arrest for 48 or 96 hours. So the clink is where they’ll have their Music Festival Day! And nobody will think of them. Well done!
Among the reasons cited or suggested, there is quite a jumble: the events in 2017 (a barrier toppled in February, an isolated action against the Andra hôtel-restaurant, a demonstration on 15 August - these events all under court investigation) ... and also, for some, a few shop-windows broken (by others) during the demo last weekend at à Bar-le-Duc… (Voir : Bure à la veille du 16 juin 2018- et Bar-le-Duc, 16 juin 2018- )
According to information received a few hours back, the persons now released were asked very varied questions about how their struggle is being carried out, about relationships between the "violent" and the "nonviolent" ... and also about the role of the Nuclear Phase-out Network. All that seems coherent with the inquest/procedure for "felony associations" that has hovered over the struggle for some time.
Naturally these house arrests were accompanied by "searches": there is so much to do, let’s grab all the activist documents!
This is clearly an attempt to intimidate the active people and to divide the movement. It is above all a warning: after the severe sanctions against the Greenpeace whistle-blowers, everyone must know now that nobody is sheltered from police and legal repression. Somewhere or other, each one of us has an "immigrant profile".
The closer that nuclear technology (military and civilian) gets to bankruptcy, the more urgent it becomes to stifle the speech of those who denounce the danger. With the previous President, it was merely a draft plan.
Today we see the start of effective implementation, though without emergency powers. Everyone can point to suspects, possible scapegoats. There are always Jews and Gypsies somewhere, aren’t there? When will we have a real round-up like 1942?
That is overstating, you say? Well, did he look nasty, our brave marshal Petain? No, he didn’t even have atom bombs!
See also:
MEDIA RELEASE from FRENCH LAWYERS-