BARSEBAECK UPDATES
Our six activists are still on the stop of reactor building B1 (been there almost 24 hours now and counting). Reactor B1 was to have been shut down on 1 July 1998 according to a Swedish government decision from 5th February 1998. The owner of the plant, Sydkraft and its main shareholder (German) PreussenElektra, have so far managed to prevent the closure by complaining to both the Swedish Administrative Court and the European Commission. The six activists on the roof are staying as long as possible (until our message has been clearly understood), and our people outside the plant (11) are also still there.
The Swedish police have sealed off the whole area, so nobody besides press, police and Barsebaeck employees get in. In addition, the leader of the Swedish police negotiating team, Roger Nyman, has asked for meetings with Greenpeace every half hour since 10:10 this morning. They are apparently going through the whole book on police negotiating. The activists that were arrested yesterday afternoon are going to be questioned again today by the prosecutor. While two Swedish citizens among the activists were released yesterday (being called in for questioning again today), 7 German activists are detained in Malmo and in Lund, 6 Austrian, 1 Danish, 1 Slovak and 1 German activist are detained. At this point we think they will not be released until the six activists on the roof are arrested, probably to put pressure on these six activists (5 Danes, 1 Swede).
11:41 GMT - 2 Barsebaeck employees tear down the Greenpeace banner
at the front gate. It's quickly repaired and replaced.
13:05 GMT - Greenpeace's Action coordinator asks two of the six activists
on the roof of B1 to come down at 14:00, in order to conserve resources
(water/food supply).
13:30 GMT - Police give Greenpeace an ultimatum: Before 13:45 GMT activists
should collect equipment and banner placing it in one corner of the roof,
and all 6 to come down voluntarily. Otherwise they will be taken down by
police.
14:00 GMT - Ultimatum repeated from police helicopter directly to activists
on the roof - activists refuse to obey.
14:02 GMT - Contact between activists on roof and those on the ground cut
off, reason unknown.
14:30 GMT - According to planned downscaling of the action, 2 activists
start climbing down, their arrest is expected any minute. The 4 remaining
stay on the roof.
14:44 GMT - Two activists confirmed arrested. We now hear that one Danish
activist imprisoned yesterday has been released.
15:10 GMT - Activists move away from the fence, no arrests. 4 remain at
front gate, 4 on the roof of B1.
15:20 GMT - Police helicopter places at least five men clad in black on
the reactor roof, trying to arrest activists. One activist is apparently
hanging down from the roof beside Greenpeace banner.
15:39 GMT - Police on the top of the roof attempt, rather dangerously,
to haul the activist up from the side of the building (beside banner).
16:03 GMT - The 3 activists seized by police on the roof are taken down.
Police have stopped trying to pull up the remaining activist (who called
Greenpeace people on the ground on his mobile phone saying that while he
was tired he could manage to stay there a couple of hours protecting our
"closing time" banner.
16:11 GMT - 2 policemen climb down in ropes on each side of our activist.
16:15 GMT - Policemen attach themselves to our activist and start descending
from the top.
16:23 GMT - All activists down from roof and arrested, one activist had
stayed on the roof for more than 30 hours.
19:25 GMT - We're told that all foreign activists arrested will be held
in custody until Sunday, stretching it to the three day legal limit. We
are trying to everything we can to get our activists out of prison.
UPDATE - Thursday 25th March
Greenpeace activists manage to climb both reactor
towers and are hanging large banners as well as on the Filtra-building.
Also, 11 activists have chained themselves to the front gate. The police
have sealed of the area. We have decided to ask some of our activists to
come down, leaving 6 activists on top of reactor building B1 where we have
our large banner. These are prepared to stay for at least 24 hours. The
police have started arresting activists coming down from the buildings,
but have cordoned of the Filtra-building so activists can't come down!
It's now dark at Barsebaeck where we still have six activists, five Danes
and one Swede, on the top of reactor building B1. They are going to stay
overnight. Greenpeace activists outside the plant are setting up spotlights
so that reactor B1 with our banner can be seen during the night. They are
also forming teams so they take shifts for the guard during the night.
18 activists and 2 non-Greenpeace cameramen were arrested after coming down
from reactor buildings B1 and B2 and the Filter-building. They were detained
for 3-4 hours in a police bus outside the police station in the nearby town
of Lund. Just a few minutes ago the first activist, a Swede, was released.
They are all charged with severe unlawful trespassing, which could mean
two years imprisonment. Greenpeace is picking those up that are released,
but the 15 German activists almost certainly will not be released tonight.