Berlin Standoff: Refugees Threaten to Jump From The Roof if Police Attempt Eviction – UPDATES

For updates from July 1st and on, please visit our new live blog here.

Tweets from the roof:

Tweets by @peaceforsudan //

Tweets by @NoBorder
//

Updates July 1st, 8th day of resistance

 

Monica Cainarca ‏@monberl  —

Police finally leaves #ohlauer area. School is still occupied, refugees still paperless, Mayor/Senator involved still in charge! #berlin

Koni Consn ‏@KoniConsn  — police did not let pass a woman #ohlauer street who urgently needed to reach the doctor

#keinpixelbreit ‏@Sunflowermind  –Today at 10 o’clock there’s going to be a demonstration on the #Ohlauer problem at the Red City Hall (via @OhlauerInfo)

#keinpixelbreit ‏@Sunflowermind 

#ohlauer [URGENT] Again there are shifts to fill at the @OhlauerInfo point: 11AM to 4PM and open end from 6PM. (Fix directly at infopoint)

[0920] #ohlauer #oplatz Also needed: Socks, cereals, non-inflammable detergents, tobacco, juice via @OhlauerInfo

pic via Berlin auf die Strasse Wir danken: www.flickr.com/photos/petshoppetshop/ für das Foto!

“Stop police terror. No human is illegal” – pic via ReneVien ‏@ReneVien  — banner in solidarity with #ohlauer – found in #kreuzberg

Updates: June 30th, 7th day of resistance 

This standoff is to enter its 8th day.

Even though the residents of Kreuzberg, Berlin, basically banned cops from imposing ban zones in their district, cops have the nerve to impose an ultimatum on the local governor to pressure her decide the outcome of the standoff their way – and this is always the bloody way. They want to attack the refugees.

Berlin department DPolG (Police union, but in fact it’s more a police lobby group) demanded the eviction of Ohlauer, too. In German, here. 

Cops are attempting to oust the power of the local governor.

 The fact that cops behave like they are ordering the governor around means that they are acting with a serious backing. The refugees have come in the middle of a power struggle between the cops (read, state interior senator Henkel) and the district government. The outcome of this power struggleis not over yet.  

Tomorrow schools in Berlin will strike in solidarity with the refugees who are about to spend the 8th night on the roof of Ohlauer school.

On Thursday, refugees in Hamburg will take the streets in solidarity with Ohlauer refugees; on the same day there will be solidarity actions in Wupertall too.

eighbors living in the neighborhood released a statement demanding the cops to leave and demanding the right to stay for the refugees in the school. They also demand that 70 refugees to be let to live in the school. They end it: “no human is illegal”. 

In the Treptow district, there are many riot cops of the federal police standing  for about 4 hours now… It seems they were ordered not to interfere. They might not want to repeat the Kreuzberg May 1st, 1987 riots, the biggest in Germany, when thousands threw the cops out of the district and hundreds of cops were injured.

Residents’ uprising against the cops was also influenced by the news of police detaining one of their neighbors who lives inside the danger zone. Seeing this, residents took it to the streets and broke down police’s banzone. 

District mayor says she will defenitely not give the order to evict to the police. In German, here.

Police announce that they will retreat at 13:00 tomorrow if district mayor does not want to evict the refugees; they are already just standing around and doing nothing against the people inside the banzone. People broke down their barriers and fences and headed towards the school, they sing and dance  

Cops getting their ban zone at Kreuzberg; pic @podinski Inside the banzone, Kreuzberg rules ! #Ohlauer#Berlin#solidarity#contrainfo#RefugeeStrike#Xhain

minutes after 20:00 local time, residents in Berlin rise up to evict cops from their neighborhood. pics via EIE; residents are holding out papers on which they wrote what the refugees said that happened to them, residents made themselves the voice of the refugees   

Such mocking cops get:

Enough is Enough! @enough14 — : It all started with a demo of people living in the banzone inside the banzone. p/v @J3DAN_DV4 :

Podinski @podinski · —Incredible Kiez solidarity for Refugees from both sides of the Sperrgebiet ! People want the cops to go ! #ohlauer

Of course, cops are pissed off and put pressure on local politicians to give them green light to attack – they published a press release a few hours ago saying that the district govt should decide eviction or not and that the district govt broke their promises. Cops say that if the district govt does not answer tonight they will leave the area; yes they blackmail politicians publicly. Source

17:38 “To all of you: we love you. Thank you for your energy, thank you forte your support.“ #Ohlauer

17:36 “The police are bothering us, keeping us from sleeping.“ #Ohlauer

17:36 “Our roof is fantastic now. We have our band, we have our food, we have our music. […] We are singing, we are laughing.“ #Ohlauer

17:30 “We don’t want houses, we don’t want hostels, we don’t want Lagers. We want our freedom.“ #Ohlauer

17:26 “They told bus companies not t transport our friends from t protest march, bt our friends are bck some o them are i t school.“ #Ohlauer

17:25 “They used propaganda to destroy our camp at O-Platz.“ #Ohlauer

17:23 “We Refugees understand the racist, capitalist asylum system very well.“