arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Raid on Squat in Brussels
by a 6:48am Thu Dec 13 '01 (Modified on 8:13am Thu Dec 13 '01)
address: ireland

this morning police raided a new squat which had been set up last night for demonstrators. About 30 people were arrested and 20 escaped. photos on belgian site.

The squat was raided at about 5.30am. I was with a group who escscaped over one of the back walls.
The police came outside. I saw 3 Police cars but there were also a number of plain clothes police in plain cars. it was impossible to tell how many. From an upstairs window we could see them give chase to anyone who tried to leave by the front.
At the back wall people were trying to climb over the wall to try and find a different way out. Some of us found a ladder and got up on the roof of another building. As we walked on the roof it gave way beneath me and i fell into the building. luckily i landed first on the bonnet of a car which broke my fall and then i bounced off that and landed on the ground. i hurt my right shoulder pretty badly and my leg and arm and ribs.
2 guys followed me into what is a garage and then the alarms went off. which was heard in the squat and caused more people to try escape. We tried to leave from the garage door but that didnt work so we took the stairs to the roof and climed into the garden, then into the next building which we managed to get out of onto the street. The police were to the left of us but they didnt pay any attention so we managed to get away.
We wandered around the city for about an hour and then went to the station squat were we heard that between 30 to 40 people had been arrested when the police came in.

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Outrage!!
by in brussels 7:21am Thu Dec 13 '01

<http://images.indymedia.org/imc/uk/squatraid1.jpg>

There is a severe lack of accomodation here in brussels with many people thinking the authorities only offer one very dirty and cold place to stay to put people off remaining in brussels.

That they evict a squat where people are sleeping in this situation is outrageous.

The situation with those arrested must be watched. During the eviction a policeman boasted how they had deported many people yesterday after the peacefull office occupation ended in mass arrest. It could be that those arrested at the squat will too be deported.

Questions remain about whether these people deported will be barred from entering Belgium for 5 years, and whether their names will be entered onto the Schengen SIS database, and then perhaps barred from travelling to other countries for similar protests.

There are more pictures at http://archive.indymedia.be/front.php3?article_id=12912&group=webcast
PEOPLE BEING DEPORTED!!
by Pennie 8:13am Thu Dec 13 '01

Deportation Follows Eviction.

Illegal Eviction and deportation of French protestors sheltering in disused building, in the run up to the Laeken Summit Protests.

At 7.30AM on the 13/12/01,the police evicted sleeping protestors from 121 Trone Street.

This building was temporarily occupied by thirty French protestors (and some other nationalities) who needed shelter from the freezing night.

Yesterday evening's temperature was recorded at minus 3 degrees centrigrade, and as the Belgian authorities have refused to facilitate shelter during the Laarken summit - the freezing December temperatures are forcing demonstrators to seek shelter in disused buildings.

This was an illegal eviction and those occupants who were French are being taken to the French border then deported, without charge. If they deport all of the others, the total for deportations, including those from the peaceful office occupation yesterday, could reach something like 80 by the end of the day.

This situation shows that once again justice is suspended, just when it suits our glorius leaders and our basic rights as citizens are as usual, ignored.