Lappersfort Forest Evicted

5th March -
Yes­ter­day morn­ing the Brugge police force emp­tied Lap­pers­fort For­est. All envi­ron­men­tal activists who had chained them­selves into tree hous­es and tun­nels have been tak­en. Five police­men have been injured.

Lappersfort treesLappersfort graffiti5th March -
Yes­ter­day morn­ing the Brugge police force emp­tied Lap­pers­fort For­est. All envi­ron­men­tal activists who had chained them­selves into tree hous­es and tun­nels have been tak­en. Five police­men have been injured.
The threat­ened land is the prop­er­ty of Fab­ri­com and has been ful­ly occu­pied since Sep­tem­ber 2008. Peace talks with the own­ers and a judge over the 3.2 hectares of land (Which has plans to be turned into indus­try and office ground) had been entered into to reach an agree­ment but had failed.

The activists chained them­selves to the trees in the morn­ing and chant­ed slo­gans as large num­bers of police mobilised and entered the for­est. 30 police con­sta­bles cor­doned off the area while 20 oth­ers — with spe­cial­ist con­trac­tors — worked to remove the activists.

Accord­ing to a spokesman for the Brugge police force 25 peo­ple have been obtained. Because some of the activists did not want to give their iden­ti­ties, immi­gra­tion con­trol has become involved. One activist has been tak­en to a prison on an immi­gra­tion mat­ter.
The activists who gave their iden­ti­ties will be released after 12 hours.
A large num­ber of trees were cut down in a short space of time. The tree hous­es were also removed. Accord­ing to the police, by yes­ter­day evening 80% of the area to be ‘devel­oped’ had been laid flat.

“Fab­ri­com claim the social impor­tance of serv­ing the com­mu­ni­ty and try to give them­selves a green image” Says for­est activist Robin “What they do in real­i­ty is put prof­its before nature and the pop­u­la­tion, of India the Ama­zon Rain­forests and in Bel­gium. We find the increase of this type of mega-multi­na­tion­al par­tic­u­lar­ly upset­ting. They claim to be green, but where we see a for­est, they see pure­ly a spec­u­la­tion ground.”

—

4.3.2010
The evic­tion of the Lap­pers­fort has start­ed. At 7h55 today, the police entered the for­est. Police is all over the for­est and a cher­ry-pick­er is in front of the for­est.

13 peo­ple have been arrest­ed while 1 remains locked on to what seems to be a 400kg con­crete block. 1 of the arrest­ed occu­piers has been trans­port­ed to jail as they are believed to either be involved in an ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tion or be ille­gal in the EU.

The evic­tion is almost end­ed. One activist is still in the fortress. The lock-on team is busy with open­ing the lock-on. It seems to be a 400kg armed, extra-strong con­crete.

There is a sol­i­dar­i­ty action on the cor­ner where 4 peo­ple pushed through the police lines but were imme­di­ate­ly arrest­ed.

Back­ground at http://lappersfort.freehostia.com/en/background.htm