France's Counter-Terrorism Unit Involved in Investigation of Climate Protestors

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By Natalie Sauer for Climate Homeย News

When Marion Esnault and comrades began removing portraits of president Emmanuel Macron from the walls of town halls across France they expected to get intoย trouble.

But last week, it emerged that their protest โ€“ up to 27 portraits so far โ€“ against what they say is Macronโ€™s failure of climate leadership, has become the target of an investigation involving Franceโ€™s Bureau de la Lutte Anti-terroriste (Blat), the office of counter-terrorismย operations.

In correspondence leaked online, andย reported by environmental publication Reporterre, Marc de Tarlรฉ, deputy director of the judicial police, urged police forces to โ€œcounter this phenomenonโ€ by contacting Blat, Franceโ€™s office of counter-terrorism operations, and asking for help to investigate the group, known as ANVCOP21 (Non-Violent Action COP21).

It was unclear what assistance the Blat are expected to give police. But Esnault told Climate Home News that the involvement of an agency self-described as โ€œspecifically concerned with the prevention and repression of terrorism actsโ€, wasย disturbing.

According to ANVCOP21, 276 activists have taken part in actions since they began in February. In response, police have prosecuted 20 people, detained 22 people and carried out 16 policeย searches.

โ€œWe had thought that the repression weโ€™d faced until now โ€“ all of the police custodies, the police searches, and the four trials with many incriminated activists โ€“ was out of proportion for a symbolic action,โ€ saidย Esnault.

โ€œBut for them now to call on the Blat, itโ€™s beyond disproportion. There are no words. We are considered terrorists when weโ€™re citizens aware of the climate crisis and the current ecologicalย catastrophe.โ€

Esnault said she understood certain actions risked prosecution, such as when Greenpeace activists entered nuclear power stations. โ€œItโ€™s more surprising to see activists who enter townhalls to take down portraits of Macron, demanding that he lead more ambitious climate policy, end up with trials and police custodies,โ€ sheย said.

โ€œIt isnโ€™t normal to resort to anti-terrorist units in order to pursue activists whose acts threaten neither the security nor the integrity of the state,โ€ Alexandre Faro, a lawyer representing members of ANVCOP21, told Reporterre. โ€œThese are theft charges, thus common law offences: what is the point of resorting to the office of anti-terroristย operations?โ€

The gendarmerieย brushed off the correspondence, tellingย Reporterre that โ€œjust because the BLAT is involved doesnโ€™t mean that itโ€™ll take on exceptional proportionsโ€. The letter wasnโ€™t classified, they said, pointing out the โ€œroutineโ€ tag pinned to the top of the message. The police force did not respond to questions from CHN.

Tarlรฉ also instructed police forces to encourage mayors or state prefects to press charges against activists and โ€œensure that a judicial investigation be systematically carried out for aggravatedย robberyโ€.

The incident comes amid a hardening of responses from governments across western Europe to protest groups calling for a faster response to climateย change.

Heather Albarrro, an associate lecturer in political ecology at Nottingham Trent University, said there were signs of a resurgence ofย โ€œgreen scareโ€ย โ€“ a phenomenon in the mid-2000s during which the US government persecuted environmental activists. At its height, the FBI labelled the Earth Liberation Front as the nationโ€™s leadย domestic terrorist threat.

โ€œThe question of the green scare resurgence โ€“ maybe itโ€™s not in full force as it was in previous decades,โ€ Albarro told Climate Home News. โ€œBut then again, with the increasing severity of things like climate change and increasing desperation of some of these more radical strands, you might see more clampingย down.โ€

Albarro said the key message of the green scare was that authorities โ€œwerenโ€™t clamping down on these activists because they were a threat to life per se. What they are is a threat to the status quo in the sense of growth-orientedย capitalismโ€.

In France last month, the French army was deployed to oversee demonstrations and protect public buildings from the gilets jaunes. Such a presence marked a first since 1947, when the French army overlooked mass-protests against the Marshallย Plan.

In February, high commissioner of human rights Michelle Bachelet recommended the UN investigate France for excessive use of force by police forces against the giletsย jaunes.

Outside France, the German government deployed one of the largest police forces since WWII to arrest activists occupying Hambach forest in an effort to keep coal giant RWE at bay. One person died in an accident, according toย climate campaign group 350.org.

Meanwhile, the British governmentโ€™sย extremism analysis unit has produced a report called โ€˜Leftwing Activism and Extremism in the UKโ€™, according aย February investigation by the Guardian. Part of 21 reports designed to inform on extremism, including Islamist and far-right wing extremism, the document comes four years after it was revealed that anย extremist databaseย included politicians and activists. The political activities of Jenny Jones, a London assembly member, and Green Party councillor Ian Driver wereย recorded.

Image credit:ย Clรฉment Tissot. Updated 04/04/19: The headline wasย changed,

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