Sun 15 January 2023:
After scores of protestors were injured in a harsh police response on Saturday, German climate activists pledged to continue their anti-coal mining demonstrations in the western village of Lutzerath, Anadolu Agency reported.
“We’ll continue to our resistance in the coming days,” Mara Sauer, spokesperson of the activists told Anadolu, adding that plans for coal-mine expansion threatens environment and climate goals.
“We are staying in Lutzerath. The coal mining here, it should be stopped. This is the source of the climate crisis. That has to stop,” she said.
More than 1,500 police officers are deployed in the area since Tuesday to forcibly evict climate activists from treehouses and buildings they occupied in Lutzerath to make way for the expansion of a nearby coal mine.
Climate activists vow to continue anti-coal mine protests in Germany#luetzerath #LuetziBleibt #Luetzerathbleibt #LuetzerathUmraeumbar pic.twitter.com/TYxHGgL5HC
— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) January 15, 2023
The police removed hundreds of activists from the village in the past couple of days, but several activists were still resisting eviction in tree houses and underground tunnels.
On Saturday, thousands of demonstrators attended a rally near the village to protest the German government and the coal-mine expansion plans, as organizers said the crowd was 35,000 strong.
Dozens of climate activists were injured after the police used pepper spray and batons to disperse the demonstrators. Activists accused the police of using excessive force against peaceful protesters.
After being held by anti-coal protesters for two years, Lutzerath came to represent ecological movements calling for an end to the usage of coal and other fossil fuels.
After Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left government, which includes the pro-environment Green party, gained office in 2021 and pledged to phase out the usage of coal, environmental groups anticipated the community would be saved from mining.
However, an energy crisis brought on by Russia’s conflict in Ukraine compelled Berlin to restart coal-fired power plants in order to meet the nation’s energy requirements.
In order to develop the Garzweiler coal mine and extract 280 million tons of lignite by 2030, the German energy firm RWE intends to demolish the village.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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