24 Jan. 2000
SOLIDARIOS CON ITOIZ’ ACTION IN BERLIN
Today, Monday 24th of January 00, the direct action group SOLIDARIOS CON ITOIZ (Basque Country) did an action on the worldwide famous Brandenburg gate in Berlin – against the itoiz reservoir project and for criticizing th e penalty of 5 years of prison that 8 of their comrades got for another peaceful and public direct action. At 11 o’clock in the morning seven activist stepped on top of a lateral roof of the building using a 9 m ladder. A few seconds later the first policemen arrived (Berlin’s center is completely controlled 24 hours) and got on the top roof of Brandenburg Gate before the activists could change the ladder’s position in order to get there. One policemen wildly moved the ladder, so the activists could’nt go on further. They decided to lock their throats to iron bars found right there by some motorbike locks – 3 activists did so. Two others climbed down some ropes and hang there till the finish of the action. A massive banner showing the Itoiz dam and the text SO S ITOIZ were put in the front of the building by them. Police, that soon were massively present, closed the whole area, took the names of some of the more than 100 supporting people on the street (that carried another banner saying “for nature’s defense 5 years of jail”) and told the people clearly to go away. Two fire brigade’s vans arrived and using their ladder 7 special agents of the Federal’s Police Special Task Forces (SEK, black uniform, covered face, machine gun) got on top of the roof. They quickly cut the iron bars th e activists were locked to by some very heavy tool. Fire brigades installed a big airbag on the floor for the case anyone falls down of the very slippery snowed roof. At 15:30 h all activists were brought to the police department, without having done any kind of resistance to the detention. A large number of tourists were quite surprised by the action and followed it with interest. The German media were massively present. Until now we don’t know when the 7 activists will be allowed to leave police department. Tuesday 25.1.2000: The arrested activists will see the judge this afternoon. It is unsure that one of them arrested with the lock around his neck already got rid of it.
25 Jan. 2000
SECOND ACTION OF SOLIDARIOS CON ITOIZ IN BERLIN
This morning (Tue, 25.01.00) at 6:30 3 activists climbed up the tv- tower at Berlin-Alexanderplatz. They planned to install a hanging tent in order to sleep there and wanted to fix a 30 x 3 meter big banner saying ITOIZ ST AUDAMM STOP (ITOIZ DAM STOP) in a very high altitude, as high as the itoiz dam actually is: 140 meters. The tower is 365 meters high (with antenna). As the tower actually is cleaned on the outside the climbers could use t he steel cables of the cleaning elevator. 30 minutes later 7 police vans were there, fire brigades too. A large number of press reporters showed up there soon, including one team in helicopter which transmitted live- pictures for the breakfast tv. The Police said they would order climbing specialists from Munich (600 kilometers away) in order to get the activists down. Finally this squad didn’t appear. While offering the possibility to SOLIDARIOS to show their banner for a few instances, and immediately finish the action without penalty, other police units managed to capture a part of the banner through a small bulleye- like window and cut it to pieces. The banner text that could be read and filmed for some time was “STOP ITO”. After noticing serious problems with his climbing gear one of the activists decided to go down by himself. The strong wind that blew all the day (temperature -10 degrees centigrade) didn’t allow to install the hanging tent. At 17:15 the other two climbers got down and were brought to police department. SOLIDARIOS con ITOIZ consider both actions to be succesful as German and basque media (and some spanish, too) did cover the action very well.
The 7 activists who were arrested yesterday had to stay in police department overnight. At 13 o’clock they saw the judge denied to leave them in prison. At 15:30 all seven appeared at Alexanderplatz and supported their co mrades’ action. All activists, those from yesterday and today, surely will have to expect a fine not yet defined.
e-mail: solidarias [at] gmx [dot] de
Fax +49-30-28389345
Website European Tour: http://www.s-o-s-itoiz.org.uk
Photo of yesterday: http://www.umbruch-bildarchiv.de/events.html
German texts & German Infotour information: http://www.infoladen- daneben.de (See: “Termine”)
