Press Prelease - 25th May 2007
Press Prelease - 25th May 2007
With an injunction, the police have forbidden the star march to Heilgendamm, due to take place on June 7th, and all other protest assemblies scheduled for the G8 Summit, within a distance of 3km from the fence around Heiligendamm and the area surrounding the military airport Rostock Laage.
However, the tide may be turning: The police department that issued the ban is now the target of inquiry. The star march lawyers have found constitutional deficiencies in the way that Kavala operates:
“In the attempt to create an ad hoc department, Kavala, to prevent any assemblies, insufficient attention was paid to basic constitutional laws. According to my judgment, this thus means that the injunction itself is Unconstitutional”, Carsten Gericke, solicitor for the star march coalition comments.
The solicitors acting on behalf of the star march coalition further criticize that, other de-escalation and staggered measures were at no point considered [ ] the issuing of a “state of emergency” denies citizens their basic rights. The assumption that every large political event demands the designation of such a “state of emergency” reflects badly on the constitutional State, creating the conditions to regularly impede civil liberties through general injunctions without any justification for doing so [ ] general injunctions have never stopped assemblies but have often contributed to escalation through limiting the space for protest to be articulated legally.
[Star March Coalition]
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Sanitz/Rostock: The German Army is training for the dispersal of demonstrators. Armed with guns, the soldiers hunt down demonstrators, played by other soldiers. In a picture published in a local newspaper (Ostseezeitung), one can see demonstrators fleeing from soldiers with gas masks. Troops will be deployed within a Civil-Military Cooperation framework. This framework intends for a closer working relationship between the German Military and the Ministry for International Affairs. Vice Admiral Wolfram Kuehn says: If they need us, we will be there for them. The deployment of military troops within the country is only allowed during national disasters or catastrophes, according to § 35 of the constitution. The G8 Summit and its policies are a catastrophe for millions of people. But this is not the reason for the deployment of military troops, G8 protesters explain. Soldiers will secure parts of the military airport Rostock Laage, that Summit protesters intend to blockade. The army is allowed to use arms in defence of criminal acts against the Federal Army.
Military Police will secure all other military property. These two have been granted powers to shoot in self-defence. The G8 in Heiligendamm is intended to provide more acceptance for the deployment of the military within the country, Hanne Jobst of the Gipfelsoli Infogroup suspects. This is a goal of hardliner Schaeuble and his predecessor Schily. A spokesperson for the regional commando of Mecklenburg-Pomerania responded yesterday that thee deployment of military forces against demonstrators is not intended as such, only if demonstrators ulawfully entered or attacked military bases. If police and military forces are training to destroy the massive and determined resistance that is being planned, then the time has come to consider canceling the G8 Summit, G8 protesters demand.
[Gipfelsoli Infogroup]
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Hamburg/Berlin: After the announcement that scent profiling measures reminiscent of Stasi methods are to be used against G8 protesters, the German newspaper, taz, has reported that the mail of G8 protesters is to be intercepted and opened at postal sorting centres. The operation is being carried out under the auspices of national and regional Offices for Criminal Investigation. The goal, according to the taz, is yet unclear. Not only were letters being opened at sorting centres, but letters were being taken out of post boxes. The spokesperson for the Hamburg Police, Ralf Meyer, would not confirm nor deny these allegations. Hartmut Lubermioski, of the Hamburg Data Protection Office, stated to the taz that he is dubious as to whether there were any lawful basis for doing this. Norman Paech, Member of Parliament for the German Left Party, argues that if these measures have been sanctioned by the Courts, then the judges have lost all respect for basic constitutional rights.
[Gipfelsoli Infogroup]
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