Danish Police Raid Copenhagen Climate Campaigners' Rooms

Published on Wednesday, December 9, 2009 by The Guardian/UK

Danish Police Raid Copenhagen Climate Campaigners' Rooms

Police detain 200 activists at their Copenhagen accommodation and seize items they claim could be used for acts of civil disobedience

by Bibi van der Zee

COPENHAGEN - Danish police last night raided a climate campaigners' accommodation centre in Copenhagen, detaining 200 activists and seizing items which they claimed could be used for acts of civil disobedience.

Police stand guard outside a former beer depot in Copenhagen, used as a temporary prison for possible activists arrested during COP15. (Photograph: Christian Als/EPA)

About 200 police arrived at the shelter on Ragnhild Street, in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen, at 2.30am. They locked activists into the building for two hours, and searched some of the nearby properties. Campaigners say they took away various items including a power drill, an angle grinder, and some wooden props. No arrests were made.

A spokeswoman for Climate Justice Action (CJA), one of the activist groups, said: "People were enormously frightened and alarmed. We really don't know why the police handled it like this: the Danish government has provided this accommodation for activists and now the police are acting unnecessarily. We'll be asking for the items they confiscated back."

Police have confirmed the raid took place but have not yet issued a statement.

The centre on Ragnhild Street is one of a handful of sleeping spaces provided by the government for the protesters who are expected during the course of the summit. Activists estimate that between 30,000-40,000 protesters may arrive over the next couple of weeks. Hundreds of small-scale actions are planned, and three large-scale peaceful protests [1] are also due to take place on Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday.

Police have said that although they will facilitate peaceful protest [2], they fear that an international extremist network may come to Copenhagen to join the peaceful protests then break away to commit acts of violence.

The head of the Police Intelligence Service (PET), Jakob Scharf, has said that "violent extremists will try to abuse and get a free ride on the peaceful activist involvement in the climate debate."

Scharf said he feared that peaceful protesters may end up in a battle zone between extremists and police.

Some activists have privately conceded that there may well be trouble at some of the upcoming demonstrations. But most strongly refute the idea that troublemakers are descending on Copenhagen. "We've found that to be a myth put about by people who are seeking to undermine the genuine reasons people are protesting," said Mel Evans of CJA. "We've issued a call out for people to take peaceful action on climate change [3] and that's why they're coming here."

© 2009 Guardian News and Media Limited

 

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