IndyMedia - Vrij Media Centrum Nederland

Wanneer: 24/02/2014 - 14:55

The situation continues tense at the farmhouse in Coulogne (suburb of Calais) with a constant presence of up to 80 fascists and supporters, death threats and now molotovs thrown at the house. The police look on laughing.

A group of people living inside a squatted farmhouse in Calogne, on the outskirts of Calais, have been under attack for several days by a gang of fascists at times numbering up to 80. The gang "Sauvons Calais" ("Save Calais") is an anti-immigrant group led by overt fascists including the swastika-tattooed spokesman Kevin Reche. As the fascists throw rocks and molotovs, and attack the house with sledgehammers, the police have watched laughing. The people living inside the farmhouse are doing their best to hold up as the attacks escalate, and not give in to fascist violence. But they need much more support.

See here for previous article with background: http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2014/02/515552.html

Sunday 23/2: A message from the inhabitants of 122 Rue Émile Dumont in Coulogne
(suburb of Calais).

We're writing to you again with the latest news from the front. Our aggressors have reached a new level of violence. On Saturday 22, we were attacked by intensive volleys of stones from two in the afternoon until half past midnight. Around 4.30 pm, one man who had threatened on the facebook page of 'Sauvons Calais' ('Save Calais') to kill some migrants and throw them into the canal threw a rock, from 6 metres away, which hit
the neck of a friend who had gone outside to talk with some of the neighbours. When we went outside to eat in the garden, we received a rain of some 20 stones in just a few seconds. As the numerous attacks on the roof and the windows went on, the crowd shouted encouragement every time a stone hit its target. As the most violent attack of stone-throwing was going on, the collective 'Sauvons Calais' was publicly hosting a buffet
outside with food and coffee, between 6 pm and midnight. They also used laser pointers against cameras and directly into the eyes of the inhabitants (legally these can be considered as weapons in this context). There were a maximum of 80 people protesting (at about 10.30pm), the last of them left around 1 am.

During all this afternoon and until about 1 am, the police (National Police and plainclothes 'Brigade Anti-Criminelle') were present, up to 8 in number. They were notable in their passivity, only intervening on two occasions in total. The first time, while our friend was hit by a rock to the neck in front of their eyes, they took him into their police car for less than a minute, then let him go. Another striking event was when a drunk man arrrived with a packet of fireworks, the police confiscated a few of them and then let him approach the house with the rest. Indeed they went so far as to hang the protestors' banner on the fence, and some of them were laughing as our attackers showed their joy when the stones hit their target. The police allowed the protestors to come right up to the gates of the house, while they stood watching a meter behind.

The police left a few minutes after the last protestors and, five minutes later, a white pick-up truck parked at the corner of Rue Aristide Brillant and Rue Haut-Champs. Two men got out and walked towards us, then t asurned away as the police briefly drove past. The two men then returned with Molotov cocktails (beer bottles) in their hands, which they lit in front of the bus stop. One of the molotovs was thrown onto the roof. Fortunately
it did not catch fire, but then they threw another which rebounded off the side of the bus stop and landed in the garden where it burned. We called the police to report the attack, they refused to listen and demanded to know our identities.

After one of us explained that he could tell them everything that happened, and could describe the attackers' vehicle, but wanted to stay anonymous, the police left. One of us went into the garden to find the debris of the molotov cocktail. A police car drive past again and he tried to show them the evidence, but they only shone their torches in his face, refusing again to record the event. We wait with much apprehension the days to come. After the molotov attack, what next?

UPDATE 8AM Monday 24/2:

Local Calais media are reporting the demonstration of around 50 racists continued through Sunday. The fire brigade were called after a group of men were spotted nearby by neighbours with jerrycans of petrol to prepare more molotov cocktails.

ACT NOW -

1. Shut down the fascists' Facebook page: Go to the page and click the flower icon next to the Message button to report it for harassment/threatening behaviour. If enough of us do it, it might just work! https://www.facebook.com/page.sauvons.calais

2. Share this info on social media; get friends to report the FB page too.

3. Go to Calais to support our comrades.
Call: 06 45 46 59 86 (from inside France)
00 33 6 45 46 59 86 (from outside France)
Or email more in advance to let us know you’re coming : calais_solidarity@riseup.net

More info:

http://luttennord.wordpress.com/2014/02/22/sauvons-calais-les-miliciens-...
http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/