A-Infos (en) Brutal Squat Eviction In East Berlin

[Arm The Spirit <ats@locust.etext.org>]

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Squat Evicted, Dog Shot And Killed;
Police Fired Shots During Squat Eviction In Berlin

     On Tuesday morning, February 24, a masked special police
unit with automatic pistols burst into the squatted house at
Pfarrstrasse 104 in the Lichtenberg district of East Berlin. One
squatter watched as his bull terrier dog was shot three times and
killed. Local authorities said the eviction proceeded "with few
incidents". 260 police were called in to evict 15 people from the
house. Berlin's right-wing Interior Minister, Jorg Schonbohm,
commented: "With our action, we have made it clear that illegal
conditions will not be tolerated in the capital. As Interior
Minister, I will see to it that there are no more squats in the
future."
     Lichtenberg's local mayor, Wolfram Friedersdorff,
had told police that there were not to be any squat
evictions without his prior notice. Friedersdorff is on
vacation at the moment. The squatters think police used that as
an opportunity to carry out a quick strike.
     For the past two years, the squatters in Pfarrstrasse 104
had been negotiating with the owners of the property to get legal
contracts. But the owner broke off talks last fall. Instead of
filing charges in a civil court, last October the owner went
ahead and told police to go after the squatters for breaking and
entering. That seems to have led to the eviction order.
     A lawyer for the squatters, many of whom had used the house
as their legal address for the past five years, is trying to have
a court declare the eviction illegal. The squatters say they
never received any eviction notices by mail before the police
action. But even if a court does rule in the squatters' favor, it
won't do the people now on the streets any good. The cops have
destroyed most of the interior of the house, and the gas and
electricity have been turned off. The Pfarrstrasse, once full of
squats in the early 1990s, has now been cleared out. Riot police
evicted the other remaining squat on the street, the Pfarrstrasse
88, last summer.

(written with info from 'junge Welt', February 25, 1998)

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