British Columbia Rainforest Blockade Ends with Arrests
6/25/97
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Jun 25, 1997 by nobody@xs2.greenpeace.org in igc:gp.press
Subject: Long Running BC Rainforest Blockade Ends with Arrests
LONG RUNNING RAINFOREST BLOCKADE ENDS WITH LARGE-SCALE ARRESTS
British Columbia's Forest Practices to be condemned at United
Nations
(KING ISLAND,BRITISH COLUMBIA,CANADA)- JUNE 24, 1997 - Large
scale arrests began this morning in one of British Columbia's
longest running and most effective protests to stop clearcutting
of the province's ancient rainforests. The blockade by the
Nuxalk First Nation and four environmental groups, stopped all
clearcut logging by International Forest products on King Island
for a total of nineteen days.
Forty members of the Canada's Royal Canadian Mounted Police, are
now in the process of physically removing sixty activists
standing on a logging road. The activists include members of
the Nuxalk First Nation along with environmental activists from
Canada, the United States, and Europe.
In a break for the normal practice the RCMP have cast an
extremely wide net, arresting not only those physically involved
in preventing logging but also the entire blockade support team.
The Greenpeace vessel the MV Moby Dick which has been providing
support to the blockade has also been seized and its crew
arrested.
Part of the arrest process involves removing a Nuxalk youth
Colette Schooner, and a Belgian woman, Marlene Van Poeck, from
a large tripod built from logs they have erected at the logging
site. The RCMP are also cutting away a German woman, Patricia
Fromm, who has locked herself to a grapple-yarder large piece of
logging equipment.
My mother has been arrested for protecting Ista. My grandfather
was arrested too. said Colette Schooner, 16, who has been
sitting in the tripod for 11 days. Now I am here for the youth
and future generations to stop the clearcutting of this sacred
rainforest.
The blockade site Ista on King Island, is sacred to the Nuxalk
Nation. It is the place, according to the Nuxalk creation story,
where the first woman descended to the world. The Great Bear
Rainforest, of which Ista is a part, is of extreme ecological
importance because it contains the world's largest remaining
areas of temperate rainforest in the world.
The arrests come just hours before Greenpeace
International's Executive Director Thilo Bode addresses the
plenary session of the Earth Summit Two in New York. One of the
concerns Mr.Bode will raise before the world's heads of state
is British Columbia's role in destroying some of the world's
last old growth forests.
According to a recent study by the World Resources Institute,
three quarters of the world's original forest cover has been
destroyed. Satellite mapping shows that half of the world's
temperate rainforest have been lost and that temperate forests
are more endangered than tropical ones.
The King Island blockade began on June 6 after eight hereditary
chiefs of the Nuxalk Nation invited the environmentalists to the
area to participate in an effort to stop the clearcut logging.
We are thankful that our allies have responded to our
invitation to stop the clearcutting of our territory by
Interfor stated Head Hereditary Chief Nuximlayc of the Nuxalk
Nation.
In 1995 22 people were arrested for protecting Ista. Now in
1997, there have been more arrests and still the clearcutting
continues.
Instead of riling up the people of BC with his thoughtless
rhetoric, Glen Clark should start listening to the people of BC,
who have today given up their rights and freedom in defense of
this locally sacred and globally important rainforest. said
Gavin Edwards, spokesperson for the Forest Action Network.
PHOTOS AND VIDEO OF THE BLOCKADE ARRESTS AVAILABLE SHORTLY.
FOOTAGE TO BE UPLINKED TO ANIK SATELLITE: TIME AND COORDINATES
TO BE ANNOUNCED.
Contact: Greenpeace: Tzeporah Berman or Mary MacNutt in
Vancouver: 604-253-7701; or 604-220-7701/416-505-1792 (cell
phones); Tamara Stark at the blockade site: 011-872-624-628-410.
Forest Action Network: Gavin Edwards in Vancouver:250- 739-4782;
Nuxalk House of Smayusta: 250-799-5376.
Editor's Note:
(1) World Resources Institute, The Last Frontier Forests, 1997