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Dutch arrest dozens at Greenpeace chain protest
The Hague (AFP) Nov 15, 2008 Dutch police on Saturday arrested more than 80 Greenpeace activists, many of whom had chained themselves to structures and machinery at the site of a new coal-fired power station in Rotterdam. The environmental group said its action, part of a Europe-wide protest against German power giant EON, was to protest an "unfolding climate disaster". Police spokeswoman Mignon van der Laan told AFP the 82 people arrested had been taken to three police stations in Rotterdam for trespassing on the Maasvlakte building site. "They will all be freed by the end of the evening," she said. The group had set up camp on the perimeters of the site on Friday night. "This morning, in spite of an agreement with the police, they entered the site and were therefore trespassing," said Van der Laan. Thirty-two among the group chained themselves to machinery, buildings and cranes, and had to be freed by police. "We had to arrest all of them. Fifty have been fined for being on forbidden territory, but the 32 who chained themselves will be given a warning to appear in a Dutch court within days to answer to charges." Three journalists were also fined. "The consequences for the climate from this coal plant would be so dramatic, that urgent action is needed now," the head of Greenpeace's energy and climate campaign, Meike Baretta, said in a statement. The body contends that coal is responsible for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. "Coal-fired power stations undermine European targets to cut emissions by 30 percent by 2020. Quitting coal is essential to a meaningful deal to save the climate," Baretta's statement said. The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was offshore from Rotterdam with dozens more people on board to provide moral and logistical support to the activists on the ground, spokeswoman Agnes Derooij told AFP from the vessel. EON said in a statement earlier in the year that the new power station had been approved in line with Dutch nature conservation laws. "Its environmental performance is leading in the world and fits in with the plans of the Rotterdam/Rijnmond area to continually improve the air quality," it said. EON spokesman Hans Schoenmakers told AFP from the site that while activists were entitled to protest, "what we don't like is that they enter our premises and create unsafe conditions. "Of course, we cannot deny that carbon dioxide is emitted from power plants, but we do try to do this in as clean a way as possible. "Electricity has to be produced, and it cannot all come from wind and solar energy," he said. Greenpeace spokesman Andre van der Vlugt said 18 nationalities were represented by the group, including Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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