Today wednesday 20th of june 2018 the struggle against the cigeo project was hit by a wave of police raids. At 7 am the House of Resistance in Bure was searched. At this point the searches are still going on. 8 homes and collective places have been simultaneously searched. In all these places the reasons for the raids were barely or not at all given. The rogatory letters were not presented in many cases. According to a press release by AFP (Agence France Presse) taking over the declarations of the prosecutor Glady, the raids are linked to “three cases from 2017”. Last september raids already happened under this pretext. Until now at least 8 people have been taken into custody after being subject to targeted arrestations. An exceptional search procedure has been used against a lawyer to enable his arrestation. The police operation is still going on and we suspect that the oucome of the day will still get worse.
We want to underline that the incidents of today are the climax of a week of intensified repression. The military occupation specifically targets our ability to gather and more generally our daily life on the territory. During this week there has been an even higher military presence around the villages of Mandres-en-Barrois and Bure than it has already been the case since the eviction of the forest, accompanied by car searches and an increased ammount of ID controls which included people getting taken to the police station for that purpose. During the day of the mobilization and the weekend of 16th/17th of june at least 19 arrestations took place. This monday three people received heavy sentences related to the demonstration of the 16th and two of them are presently in prison. Since the beginning of the week six persons have been arrested in Bure and its surroundings. This threat of being arrested is permanent and the means that are deployed are enormous (hundreds of officers of the military police – gendarmerie mobile, horses, drones, light plane, cameras of all kinds…). Despite this large state operation which is aimed at intimidating us, we continue to be determined in our struggle against the CIGEO project, against ANDRA and its world. We widely call for gatherings today at 6 pm in front of prefectures, embassies or consulates all over France and the world in order to show solidarity with this struggle, with the people currently in custody or imprisoned.
Some international owls who are following the situation
