Inde : La police disperse une vaste manifestation anti-nucléaire
La police anti-émeutes a dispersé ce lundi, à l’aide de gaz lacrymogènes, des milliers de manifestants contre l’ouverture du plus important projet indien de centrale nucléaire, qui doit avoir lieu d’ici quelques semaines. Environ 4.000 militants, en grande partie des femmes et des enfants de villages de pêcheurs des environs, campaient depuis plusieurs mois sur une plage à environ un kilomètre de la future centrale de Kudankulam, de conception russe.
Des images diffusées par la télévision montrent les manifestants fuir par la mer, dans des bateaux de pêcheurs, la charge de centaines de policiers. La centrale aurait dû commencer à fonctionner l’an dernier mais des manifestants se sont rassemblés autour du site, après la catastrophe japonaise de Fukushima, en mars 2011, au cours duquel le combustible de trois réacteurs a fondu, à la suite d’un tremblement de terre et d’un tsunami. La région de la centrale, sur la pointe sud de l’Inde, a été fortement touchée par le tsunami de 2004 dans l’océan Indien, ce qui provoque les craintes des activistes anti-nucléaire.
Leur presse (Reuters, 10 septembre 2012)
Kudankulam protest turns violent, one killed in firing
One person was killed in police firing in Tuticorin as anti-nuclear protesters turned violent on Monday after police foiled their repeated attempts to lay siege to the atomic power plant in Kudankulam against loading of uranium fuel. A 44-year old fisherman was killed when police opened fire at a group of people who clashed with them while blocking a road in Manapad coastal village as the protest spilled to neighbouring Tuticorin District, police said.
At Kudankulam in Tirunelveli District, the main scene of protests for the last two days, police resorted to lathicharge and burst teargas shells to disperse over 2,000 protesters who fought pitched battles throwing stones and logs.
As the baton-wielding policemen chased away the protesters, many of them moved towards the sea to escape.
Sporadic violence then followed as enraged groups of protesters set fire to a local Panchayat office, the village administrative officer’s office and a state-run liquor retail shop in Kudankulam, in an ugly turn to the over year-long peaceful protest, police said.
The police action followed after authorities failed to persuade the protesters who, for the second day, defied prohibitory orders and stayed put at the seashore, about 500 metres away from the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.
Tuticorin, about 80 km from Kundakulam, also saw about 500 people block the Mysore-bound train by squatting on the track, as also the highway connecting Nagercoil.
Condeming the police action, People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy, spearheading the protest against KNPP, announced a 48-hour relay fast against it.
In Chennai, chief minister Jayalalithaa reviewed the situation with DGP K Ramanujam.
The protesters gave the call for the siege as a last-ditch effort to stall the Indo-Russian project after regulatory authorites gave their nod for loading the uranium fuel in the first of the two reactors.
A bandh-like situation prevailed here and surrounding villages with shops and schools remaining shut. The villagers also dug up main roads leading to Idinthakarai in a bid to prevent police vehicles from entering it.
Around 4,000 security personnel, including Rapid Action Force, have been deployed in the area.
Condemning the police action, PMANE Convenor SP Udayakumar charged the state government with exposing its « fascist » face and vowed to continue the protest.
The first unit of KNPP was scheduled for commissioning in December 2011, but ran into rough weather with the locals demanding its scrapping on safety concerns.
Leur presse (HindustanTimes.com, 10 septembre 2012