To: the commander of the police of Goteborg

 

Sittard-the Netherlands, July 12 2001

 

Subject: arrest during Euro Summit.

 

Madam, sir,

 Herewith I file a complaint against the police of Goteborg for the fact that I have been unlawfully arrested twice during the Euro summit and for the  fact that the kitchen of Rampenplan was unable to do their work because of the unlawfully acts of the police.

 I was in Goteborg as a member of Rampenplan, a mobile kitchen. We were invited by the city council to cook for the demonstrators and our kitchen was approved by the fire department and the public health service.

 Our reason to be there was to cook, to support the demonstrators by making tasty ecological vegan meals. We had no part in one of the riots, We didn’t throw stones at policemen, we were not carrying any weapons and we didn’t ‘prepare a violent action to disturb the peace’.

 The police had no reason to believe we did. Still we’ve been arrested twice and treated as if we were dangerous terrorist without any civil rights.

The only reason they arrested me and the other members of the kitchen is because we were at a place were many demonstrators gathered. When I explained to one of the policeman that I was only cooking he replied: “you were cooking at the wrong place”.

We had a legal right to be there, we had an invitation of the city of Goteborg, we did nothing to provoke the police so our arrest is completely illegal.

 On Thursday 14 th, in the morning policemen came, encircled the Hvitsfeldska school. Our vegetables storage was just behind the policeline. We were denied acces, and where thus hindered in preparing food. No reason was givenfor all this although we’ve asked.

This situation lasted for hours. Finally when the whole school was surrounded by shipping-containers the police retreated.

 The first time we were arrested was on Thursday the 14th of June during the eviction of the Hvitfeldska Gymnasium.

At this time we were just pulling down our kitchen and willing to leave the premises.

Mr. Anderson, director of the school had just given us two possible places (other schools) to move our kitchen to. We were never told that we were supposed to leave before 16.30; even more we had an appointment with a member of the city councel at 17.00 o’clock at the schoolyard.

 Although I told the police (A2000)that we had a legal status to be at the schoolyard, I even showed him the official papers we’re all been arrested.

 After ten hours sitting in a bus at the parking of the police station, I was put in a cell, and after an hour I’ve been questioned. During this examination I told the police officer that our arrest was illegal because of the official invitation and because of the fact that no one told us that we had to leave the schoolyard. Even more we had an appointment at five o’clock at the schoolyard with someone of the city counsel.

After the examination I was put in a cell again and after two hours I was released.

 Most members of the kitchen were never questioned, no reason for arrestation was given.

 The whole Friday we had to wait before we could go to our kitchen; every time police officers forbid us to go to the kitchen, still standing at the schoolyard. This lasted untill 17.00 hours.

Therefor we couldn’t cook, like we couldn’t in the evening of Thursday the 14th of June.

Although we had an invitation. Therefor it was impossible for to sell for the second day already.

Normally we should have cooked something like 2500 meals; in this case it was a lost of approximately 50.000 SKr; and besides that we had to throw away a lot of vegetables and for example milk because we weren’t allowed to stow away those things in our cold store. Another lost of approximately 5.000 SKr.

 The second time I was arrested at the Schillerska school on Saturday June 16, between ten and half past ten in the evening.

A commando overtook the whole school, and also the kitchen which was built up again with the permission of the city councel and also again after been approved by the fire department. The whole raid was extremely violent, with normal and special guns pointed at us.

 -They pinched our arms and dragged us to the front side of the school . There we were forced to lay down on the cold and wet ground with the face down and the hands in the neck, for two hours.

-During that time no one was allowed to speak to neighbours, nor to go to the toilet.

-Then we had to sit in an bus again for approximately 3,5 hours.

-We were not told that we were arrested! No reason was given for the behaviour of the policemen.

-They treated us disrespectful. From their behaviour and from everything they said it was clear that the held us personal responsible for the riots and that they wanted revenge. We were “quilty untill proven innocent.”

-Finally we were told to leave the bus and several policemen drove us like cattle in the corner of two buildings. We stood there for about ten minutes. All the time they tried to provoke us, they looked us in the eyes with hate, disgust and anger, to frighten and intimidate, hoping we would give them a reason to hit us.