2008-04-02 

Massive Repression during the NATO Summit in Romania

One day before the start of the Nato summit in Bucharest the situation gets worse. Hourly alternative looking people are detained by the police for no reason. Afterwards the police construct absurd offence, for example carrying a pocketknife amounting to possession a weapon. Every person coming to or leaving the convergence center is in danger of getting detained (some simply for walking to a nearby shop). The detained are interrogated, photographed and fingerprinted in police stations, and held for up to 24 hours.
At the Romanian border several groups of activists, as well as others, have been denied entry into the country.

Bild: Bukarest

The most involved Romanian activists around the country have at this point been visited or called by either the local police or SRI (Romanian information service) to be warned against participating in any anti-nato protests or to have their families intimidated.

27000 police officers, military, snipers and secret police are occupying the city. The security alert code yellow has been announced, meaning that all demonstrations are forbidden in the whole city amongst other restrictive laws.
In the face of this repression the actions of the few activists present are severely limited. Therefore we urgently need your solidarity. Please make solidarity actions in your cities.

Repression Update list:

19th of March - Calafat checkpoint 6 anti-nato German activists; searched for 19 hours

26th of March - four of the 6 tried to cross again at Giurgiu check-point

27th of March - Tatiana Duplei was run over

28th of March – “Die Young” hardcore group from Texas Cenad check-point denied entry

29th of March 7am - 5 anti-nato activists in Bucharest were stopped by the sector 3 police and taken to police station 11 for verification. They refused to have photos taken or be
fingerprinted, and were only let go once they started making phone calls to the mass media

31st of March - 7 Czech activists tried to cross the border and were detained at the border
for 8 hours after which they were denied entry into Romania. One of the activists was carrying some information from the Czech anti-radar base movement. They were all searched and some cd's and leaflets were found

1st of April c 00:30 3 activists were stopped by sector 3 jandarmerie when they were coming back from the market. They were stopped for 2 hours outside and then taken to section 14. a penal case has been opened against them for carrying 'white weapons' (Swiss army knife)

1st of april in the morning 4 polish activists tried to cross the border. After their license
plate number was checked they were told by the police that they knew that they were going to Bucharest to protest against nato and were denied entry.

1st of April c. 12:30 1 person was stopped by sector 3 jandarmerie for suspicion of having stolen goods on his person and taken to the section 3 police for verification and checking after 1.5 hours on the street. he was released at around 6 pm. big backpack

1st of april a bus of anti-nato activists from Berlin was stopped in Pitesti. the activists were taken to the police station and after some interrogation, were escorted out of Pitesti and started driving towards Bucharest. They reached Bucharest late on the 1st of april along with the police escort but are constantly with the police escort and cannot come to the convergence center.

1st of april in the late afternoon a group of 4 anti-nato activists passing out flyers were
detained and taken to section 8 and 4 other anti-nato activists were detained and taken to section 8 as well...

1st of april in the late evening several anti-nato activists were stopped and searched by police while on their way to the convergence center, but eventually were let go