U.S. Army Military Police Seize Camera at Protest in Darmstadt, Germany
Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2007-10-16 18:23. Media
From GLOBAL NETWORK AGAINST WEAPONS AND NUCLEAR POWER IN SPACE
By Regina Hagen, Darmstädter Friedensforum,
[email protected]Today, at a protest in front of a US satellite spy base in Darmstadt, Germany, a member of the US Army Military Police seized the camera of Regina Hagen, who is a member of the Darmstädter Friedensforum and on the Board of the Global Network.
The Darmstädter Friedensforum (Darmstadt Peace Forum), who had organized the Global Network annual conference in Darmstadt in March this year, and the German section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom staged the protest at the spy station which consists of five "golf balls". 16 people met to hear information about the role of the station in the wars led globally by the US military, about the US/UK Echelon system to which the Darmstadt base belongs, and about the increasing move towards the weaponization of space, as well as to listen to political songs from GN member Holly Gwinn Graham.
Before concluding the protest, Regina grouped all
rally participants at the gate for a group photo in
spite of an announcement by a member of the US Army
Military Police that no photos are allowed (which is a
bit absurd: hundreds of pictures were taken at the
protest in March, and dozens today before the MP
arrived at the site). While Regina made the first
picture, the US MP harshly grabbed the camera from her
hand (which you can see on the following photo).
Regina made it clear that she would not tolerate this
behaviour. There is no law, she said, that prohibits
German citizens standing on German territory to take
photos - and she called German police to get her
camera back. German policemen showed up, and after
lengthy negotiations with the US Military police as
well as the German security guards of the US base they
let the US Army members know that they would soon
receive information about their rights as well as
those of protesters in Germany - and brought the
camera back. Regina asked German police to stay while
taking some more pictures (one of which is shown
below*)
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