rundbrief 19.8. - strasbourg

gipfelinfo 19.8.2002
öffentlicher rundbrief der infogruppe [berlin]
-----------------------------------------------

AUFRUF ZUR INTERNATIONALEN MOBILISIERUNG FÜR DIE
BEFREIUNG VON AHMED UND DAS ENDE ALLER VERFAHREN
GEGEN ANGEKLAGTE TEILNEHMERiNNEN DES GRENZCAMPS
21. August 2002

Ahmed, ein Aktivist des "Mouvement Spontané"
(entstanden in Paris nach dem ersten Gang der
französischen Präsidentschaftswahl, den der
Konservative Jacques Chirac und der Rechtradikale
Jean-Marie Le Pen gewonnen hatten) und Teilnehmer
des Grenzcamps Ende Juli in Straßburg, wurde am 24.
Juli gezielt aus einer Demonstration für Bewegungs-
und Niederlassungsfreiheit und für die Schließung
aller Abschiebegefängnisse heraus verhaftet. Das
Grenzcamp führte mehr als 2000 Menschen aus der
ganzen Welt in Straßburg zusammen, dem Sitz des
Schengen-Informations-Systems (SIS), um sich gegen
alle Formen gesellschaftlicher Überwachung, für
Bewegungsfreiheit und für die Abschaffung der
Grenzen einzusetzen.
Der Demonstration vom 24. Juli begegnete die Polizei
mit massiver Gewalt (Gas- und Knüppeleinsatz). Dabei
schoß sie sogar aus weniger als vier Metern
Entfernung mit Gummigeschossen (zwei
Schwerverletzte). Das ganze Grenzcamp wurde von der
Polizei heftig behindert (der Präfekt erließ ein
Demonstrationsverbot für vier Tage, es gab
wiederholte Verhaftungen und sieben Anklagen...).
Allgemein sind diejenigen, die sich gegen die
gesellschaftliche Überwachung und ihre Instrumente
organisieren, Objekt besonderer polizeilicher
Aufmerksamkeit.
Da die Aktionen und Demos trotzdem nicht verhindert
werden konnten, stellt die Kriminalisierung von
Ahmed jetzt eine verspätete Rache dar, um zu zeigen,
daß der Staat trotz allem diese "Wilden" unter
Kontrolle hat, die die etablierte Ordnung
herausfordern.
Ahmed sitzt derzeit im Straßburger Gefängnis in
Untersuchungshaft. Die in seinem Fall deutlich
gewordene Härte von Justiz und Verwaltung läßt uns
befürchten, daß Ahmed zum Symbol des staatlichen
Willens werden könnte, jeden Zweifel am
Sicherheitsapparat zum Schweigen zu bringen. Diese
verbissene Härte ist in jedem Moment des Verfahrens
spürbar: gezielte, sehr gewalttätige Verhaftung
(eine ganze Weile nach den Taten, die ihm
vorgeworfen werden, die er jedoch abstreitet), die
Einleitung eines Schnellverfahrens, das nur sehr
eingeschränkt "öffentlich" durchgeführt wurde (15
Personen konnten schließlich teilnehmen, dazu mußten
sie ihre Papiere abgeben, die die Polizei bis zum
Ende des Gerichtstermins einbehielt; sofort nach der
Anhörung wurde der Gerichtssaal geräumt!), die
Entscheidung, daß Ahmed bis zum Prozeß in Haft
bleiben muß, seine Isolationshaft und die
Verweigerung sämtlicher Besuchserlaubnisse.
Sein Antrag auf Aussetzung der U-Haft wurde ohne
seinen Anwalt verhandelt (wegen des Besuchsverbots
konnten sein Anwalt und seine Angehörigen nicht
rechtzeitig benachrichtigt werden) und natürlich
abgelehnt.
Seit seiner Verhaftung gab es zahlreiche Aktionen
und Demonstrationen (in Straßburg, Paris, aber auch
anderswo in Europa, z. B. in Zürich und Wien).
Damit diese verbissene Härte endet, um seine
Freilassung und die Einstellung des Verfahrens gegen
ihn und die anderen beschuldigten Grenzcamp-
TeilnehmerInnen zu fordern (sechs von ihnen müssen
nächsten Februar in Straßburg vor Gericht
erscheinen), rufen wir die "Unkontrollierbaren" von
Europa und anderswo auf, nach Straßburg zu kommen
und an dem Prozeß am 21. August teilzunehmen und an
allen anderen Orten einen internationalen
Solidaritäts-Tag mit Aktionen und Demos zu
organisieren. Alle Initiativen sind eingeladen, zu
zeigen, daß die TeilnehmerInnen des Grenzcamps in
Bewegung bleiben - ebenso wie alle, die sich dagegen
wehren, daß ihr Leben in "gesicherte" Schengen-Räume
oder ähnliches eingesperrt wird.
Im Namen des No-Border-Netzwerks und aller Gruppen
und Individuen, die sich am Straßburger Grenzcamp
beteiligt haben, fordern wir die Freilassung von
Ahmed und die Einstellung der Verfahren gegen ihn
und alle anderen Beschuldigten vom Grenzcamp.

No-Border im Exodus

Fragen, Infos, Aktionsberichte:
 il-legalteam@lalune.org
 http://www.noborder.org
Finanzielle Solidarität: Schecks an AAU,
(il)legalteam, c/o CAE, 21ter rue voltaire, 75011
Paris
Internationale Überweisungen auf das Konto: FR 763
000 4007 7800 0002 8113 825

REPRESSION AGAINST THE STRASBOURG CAMP: ITS WORKING
AND CONSEQUENCES

* Note

Many questions closely connected with the problem of
repression have willingly not been taken up here.
Words followed by ° are explained at the end of the
text.

* Before the camp

We hve had the denial of the Lingolsheim site, the
will to delay indefinitely written agreements,
facilities, etc. Then they accomodated a C.R.S.° in
the hotel Mercure; at the beginning of the camp it
came from the Moselle° and was later replaced by one
from the Rhone°. The rounds of RG° (or BAC°?) in the
camp have been easily stopped.

We must take into account that working with a
collective responsibility as we do is a deep mystery
(Marx said "a Sphinx") for bourgeois thinking,
especially for members of the elected bodies. There
must have been directions from the government: the
CUS° has certainly contacted the prefecture° and a
prefect° will not take an important decision without
refering to the Ministry of Home Affairs: it would
violate the rules for survival in a administrative
environment and more so as the government was
changing. Anyway, the C.R.S.° coming from other
departments° were not under the prefect's authority
(until they arrived).

* Stepping up the tension

What with the rain and the delay of the technical
services, the activities of the camp can be said to
have actually started on Sunday. On Monday, two
people have been arrested and the reaction was
immediate: demonstration toward the police station
and blocking of the bridge, with their pretty quick
liberation as a result. On Tuesday, several arrests.
The scenario has always been the same: militants
arrested isolately or a little apart from a
demonstration; the pretext was a trifle, typically a
"tag°" which would normally lead to no arrest and be
punished with a fine;the affair is made dramatic by
inflating the motive (aggravated degradation, ...)
and placing the militants in "garde a vue°".

According to an information from the press, the
mayor of Strasbourg has asked the prefect to forbid
demonstrations as soon as Tuesday night (it is of
course possible that the prefect himself suggested
her to do so). The sure fact is that the arrests of
the first days, and above all their dramatization,
made up a campaign of criminalization used to
prepare the higher level of repression which took
place on Wednesday.

We have to insist on the fact that on Wednesday
there was no incident worth noticing during the
first hour and half of the demonstration. The
breaking of a bank show window, about which there
has been much noise, took place after the first
charges of the police.

Thinking about this sequence of events, one cannot
believe that demonstrations were forbidden as a
consequence of the "degeneration" of Wednesday's
demonstration. It is likely that the attack against
the dmonstration was planned as the final step of
the criminalization needed to justify the
interdiction.

* About the general assembly during the night from
Wednesday to Thursday

Unavoidably, this especially brutal repression and
the criminalization campaign that preceded it
brought to a climax the divisions inside the camp.
Anyway it was a shock.

The Bertha group had taken into account the
possibility of a massive assault against the camp by
the police. It was considered improbable but the
steps to be taken had been planned. Many
participants got a genuine paranoia about it.
However somebody rightly remarked that had become
still more improbable, at least in the immediate
future. First, it was useless to forbid
demonstrations if the camp was to be dispersed right
away. Second, very likely, before sending in the
police, the prefect would have notified us an order
to clear away or the police would have first tried
to cause incidents within the camp.

However that may be, there was no massive exodus
from the camp on Thursday and most groups who had
actions planned or going on in the city did it
(noborder ZONE bus, presence in front of the prison,
rally for political prisoners...).

* The interventions in town from Thursday on

As soon as Thursday afternoon, two "affinity groups"
met to start again demonstrations in the city. There
has been interventions outside the camp until the
end:
several interventions of the Samba group,
rally in front of the courthouse on Friday during
Ahmed's trial,
blocking of bridges in the city,
occupation of a barge,
demonstrationn in Kehl and new blocking of the
bridge of Europe,
very much noticed presence at the "braderie".
Obviously, these could not have the same bulk as the
former demonstrations and it is difficult to get an
overview of them. Anyway, they were important enough
for the police to commandeer buses to bring the
demonstrators back home.

On the whole, the repression has been weaker during
this second phase of the camp. This is probably due
in large part to the fact that the interventions
were dispersed. In spite of its admirable dedication
and the reinforcements it had received, the police
cannot be everywhere at the same time. Moreover, the
outcome of police attacks was now to make clearer
that the interdiction was a failure.

Finally took place the departure in procession of
the "exodus", which was a tactical success which we
have not been able to use enough. We cannot
elaborate on this point here.

* Conclusion

To sum up, two points become clear. The events of
Wednesday were prepared by a campaign of
criminalization of the camp. The attack (very
probably planned) against Wednesday's demonstration
was used as a pretext to forbid demonstrations and
was not the reason of the interdiction.

The important point is that the interventions in the
city went on after their prohibition and until the
end of the camp. Did not the prefecture° of
Strasbourg (and behind it, the French state) behave
like these people who lift up a heavy stone, just to
let it fall back on their feet?

Collectif Anti-Expulsions of Paris

°BAC = Brigade Anti-Criminalite. Notice that in
French juridical language a "crime" is a heavier
offence than a "delit". The BAC were initially
created as a sort of anti-gang units. Now they are
mostly used for tough intervention against small
delinquency (real or supposed). Their favourite
target is the youth on the banlieues.
°C.R.S. = Compagnie Republique de Securite. A unit
of a mobile police body, mostly used as anti-riot
police. Usually used for a member of this body. A
company numbers roughly 150 cops.
°CUS = Communaute Urbaine de Strasbourg. The
administration of the city and suburban communities.
°Department = see under prefect.
°Garde à vue = police detention in the frame of a
case of crime or delit, as distinguished from a
simple identity check (see under BAC for "crime" and
"delit"). The "garde a vue" is illegal if the
offence is only liable of a fine.
°Moselle and Rhone = Two departments, neither of
them in Elsass.
°Prefect, prefecture = France is divided into 95
departments which are the most important
administrative units. State power in the department
is split between an elected body, the Conseil
General (General Council) and the prefect who is the
delegate of the government. As such he has the
police forces under his authority. The hierarchical
chief of the prefect is the Minister of Home
Affairs. Strasbourg is the seat of the prefecture of
the Bas Rhin department.
°RG = Renseignements Generaux. A body of police
(plain clothes) inn principle in charge of
collecting information, mostly political.
°Tag = this English word is now used in French with
a completely different meaning: inscription or
painting on a wall.

INFOGRUPPE BERLIN
Die Berliner Gipfelsoli-Infogruppe ist
hervorgegangen aus der Infogruppe der
Genuagefangenen. Wir sind unter  gipfelsoli@gmx.de zu
erreichen. Wir haben einen Email-Verteiler angelegt,
über den aktuelle Nachrichten zu Prozessen in
Göteborg und Genua (und andere Aktivitäten wie z.B.
die Mobilisierung zu EU-, G 8- oder Nato-Gipfeln
oder internationalen Camps) verschickt werden.
Die AutorInnen der Beiträge, so sie nicht von uns
verfasst sind, sind mit eckigen Klammern versehen.
Wir können leider keine Verantwortung für die
Richtigkeit der Beiträge garantieren.
Wenn ihr in den Verteiler aufgenommen (oder
gelöscht) werden wollt, schickt einfach eine Mail.