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Police officers push back demonstrators on the edge of the opencast lignite mine Garzweiler at the village Luetzerath dpa via AP

Some 70 police injured as climate activists protest over German village's destruction

The site, which has been earmarked for a coal mine expansion, attracted thousands of protesters yesterday including Greta Thunberg.

AROUND 70 POLICE officers have been injured in environmental protests at a German village being razed to make way for a coal mine expansion, police authorities have said.

In an operation that began on Wednesday, hundreds of police have been removing activists from the doomed hamlet of Luetzerath in western Germany.

The site, which has become a symbol of resistance to fossil fuels, attracted thousands of protesters yesterday, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Some of the protesters clashed with police. The organisers reported that dozens had been injured.

A spokesman today said the tally of police injuries was down to difficult conditions on the ground since Wednesday, as well as yesterday’s clashes.

embedded270560191 People attend a protest rally at the Garzweiler opencast mine. AP AP

Criminal proceedings have been launched in around 150 cases, police said, including for resistance against police officers, damage to property and breach of the peace.

Activists on Saturday had accused the police of using “massive batons, pepper spray… water cannons, dogs and horses”.

At least 20 activists had been taken to hospital for treatment, said Birte Schramm, a medic with the group. Some of them had been beaten on the head and in the stomach by police, she said.

Organisers said that 35,000 protesters demonstrated on Saturday. Police put the figure at 15,000.

Thunberg has tweeted from the site since arriving there on Friday, joining the protest which she said had started with local people resisting the expansion “for years”.

The situation on the ground was “very calm” today, the police spokesman said.

About a dozen activists were still holed up in tree houses and at least two were hiding in an underground tunnel, according to the police.

Luetzerath — deserted for some time by its former inhabitants — is being demolished to make way for the extension of the adjacent open-cast coal mine.

The mine, already one of the largest in Europe, is operated by energy firm RWE.

The expansion is going ahead in spite of plans to phase out coal by 2030, with the government blaming the energy crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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    Mute James Reardon
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    Jan 15th 2023, 2:05 PM

    We can’t sell peat internationally, but not to each other. Coillte can sell our land to brittish investment funds to farm timber, but we cant buy soft woods for burning in shops no more. Its crazy that the Germans are expanding mines like this while our crowd are screwing us at a profit.

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    Mute Ruairi Colton
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    Jan 15th 2023, 2:24 PM

    @James Reardon: Exactly. An area the size of Dublin they are selling off to a british investment fund. And where are they getting this land from? I think we have spent long enough trying to get the Brits out and now they’re selling them the country.

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    Mute James Reardon
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    Jan 15th 2023, 2:25 PM

    @James Reardon: *can sell peat internationally, damn it.

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    Mute John Mulligan
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    Jan 15th 2023, 4:09 PM

    @Ruairi Colton: our own Nimbys have blocked irish farmers from planting commercial forests to meet our construction needs, so somebody has to fill that gap, unless we want to continue importing timber from Britain as we’ve had to do for the last couple of years.
    We all live in houses, and we need many more, so there’s no use complaining about producing sustainable and renewable feedstock for that industry locally instead of importing it.

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    Mute Francis Devenney
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    Jan 15th 2023, 8:02 PM

    @James Reardon: So is it that you think that ” our crowd ” should also be strip-mining the land or that “Somebody else is screwing up, so why should we bother?”
    Neither seems a reasonable position to me.

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    Mute Paul Maguire
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    Jan 15th 2023, 2:07 PM

    Great and co are back talking about doom and gloom… However, the majority of these protesters come from homes that are Powered by fossil fuels and driving vehicles that are run by fossil fuels… And wouldn’t think twice about ordering their food online to be delivered to their homes.

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    Mute David Jordan
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    Jan 15th 2023, 9:24 PM

    @Paul Maguire: “There are thought to be 1.3 billion tons of lignite (also known as brown coal) in the Garzweiler II area. Energy company RWE planned to remove more than 600 million tons of it by opencast mining, which would necessitate the destruction of several villages”

    You know practically no one can switch off their electricity and reach saint like ethical perfection, then go protesting fully immune from criticism. We’re dependent on electricity much like water or food. Or maybe you still prefer to restrict protests to uncontacted Amazonian Tribes members and the German villagers whose home are getting bulldozed?

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    Mute Mary Nugent
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    Jan 15th 2023, 1:59 PM

    Back to coal get Eamo over there quick.

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    Mute Paul Jude Redmond
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    Jan 15th 2023, 10:17 PM

    When in doubt, blame the Russians

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