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Greenpeace activists shot at as climate conference opens
Posted by tracy on 3 December 2007.
We just found out that our colleagues in Indonesia were shot at while they climbed the cooling tower and loading crane of a coal-fired power station to hang a banner reading “Coal kills climate”.
Security personnel from PLTU Tanjung Jati B coal power plant in Jepara, Central Java fired five gunshots at the activists from the Rainbow Warrior, others pulled knives.
Check out the video:
Captain Mike Fincken from the Rainbow Warrior wrote on his blog:
"The pop of a rifle being fired drew me out of the bridge. Through my binoculars I could see climbers, with their backpacks full of rope, running along the top of the coaling jetty. Some had reached the top of the crane. Another pop of rifle fire and in the same moment an object fell from the top of the coal crane, 100 meters into the sea. “There goes a climber” I shocked Hans, the radio operator, standing beside me watching. I knew it was just the banner. A guard had reached the top of the crane, drawn a knife and cut it down before it could even be unfurled."
All the activists were arrested. We'll keep you posted as we hear more from the team.
Tags:
good lord, this is terrible.
good lord, this is terrible. I really hope they're ok.x
Good lord, this is
Good lord, this is terrible...what if some of the workers had got hurt? I don't know if they are entirely within their rights to fire shots (they may well be!) but I think you wouldn't have much difficulty persuading a court there were mitigating circumstances in this case (notably...activists doing unacceptable things).
I entirely applaud the actions of the guards.
Trespassing?
Aren't these activists trespassing on the coal-fired power plant? You can't violate the law to show your hatred of CO2 emissions
That's kind of the point of
That's kind of the point of direct action - if going in to stop an environmental wrong happening (in this case, emissions from a coal-fired power station) puts you in conflict with the law, then that's what you do.
I don't know what Indonesian law says about using reasonable force and all that, but their human rights record is not outstanding so the freedom we have in this country to protest (well, sort of freedom...) is not reflected there. Supporting the use of firearms against peaceful demonstrations (which this was) sounds, well, dictatorial.
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wrayal you're insane.
Shooting unarmed civilians is a bad thing.
And the idea that the men firing the shots might get hurt is a daft suggestion. Some sort of recoil injury?
So perhaps you'd be better off living in the military dictatorship you so clearly aspire to be oppressed by.
Shots fired...
Respect to the guys and girls who risked their safety for that banner. Even though it didnt unfurl, we tried and everyone is safe to go on and try again somewhere else at the next direct action.
People who do these direct actions inspire other people to feel that they can overcome their fear of authorities and fences, and go and fly a flag or open a banner to show people sometimes around the world, a clear message.
These guys werent reckless, i think me may have underestimated the response the indonesian guards were going to have though....