IndyMedia - Vrij Media Centrum Nederland

Wanneer: 21/02/2018 - 16:05

Yesterday we took action at TU Delft Bedrijvendagen against the cooperation of the university with the big arms companies Airbus and Thales.

TU Delft has been cooperating with Thales and Airbus on research and development of advanced military technology, such as radar systems and composites for military aircraft. Their products are being used in war-zones and by EU border guards, making the borders more and more deadly. They spend huge amounts of money to lobby the European Union to militarize its borders.

With a group of thirty people we stood at the entrance of the event with banners and flyers to make our message clear and visible. Police was also there in big numbers and tried to repress our voices, but we were loud, we were visible and we disturbed business as usual. The police tried to move us to a special 'demonstration area' about fifty meters away from the entrance to render our protest invisible, but we stayed strong and stood before the entrance for over an hour. During that time, we managed to attract a lot of attention and talk to many students, with some even joining the protest.

Just before the protest, the police entered a cafe where some participants were waiting for the protest to begin to ask for their identifications. When one of them refused to do this, the person got arrested without the protest even being started yet. The police still hasn't released her and has put her into custody with the reason that she 'didnt comply to a police officer's request' by not giving her identity. They want to keep her until her courtcase tommorow. This is a ridiculous reason and an act of trying to break someone in showing their identity, her lawyer is doing everything she can to get her out as soon as possible. This act of the police shows us that they want to repress everyone who is not willing to show their identity on the street or during an arrest. We cannot let this be a standard technique by the police.

Tonight (21th of February) at 20:00 there will be a noise demonstration at the headquarter of the police of The Hague (Patijnlaan 35) in solidarity with our anonymous comrade. Bring stuff to make noise and lets not accept the behaviour of the police who try to break us into showing our identity and stop us from making our voices heard!

See also the photo report of the demonstration by Doorbraak: www.doorbraak.eu/actie-wapenbedrijven-mocht-alleen-zo-niemand-zag-beeldv...