North Dakota police move to clear pipeline protesters
Police in the US state of North Dakota engaged in a tense standoff with oil-pipeline protesters
CHICAGO (AFP) - Police in the US state of North Dakota engaged in a tense standoff with oil-pipeline protesters Thursday in an effort to clear them from a public road and off private property.
Police arrested at least 16 people. That number was expected to rise as "numerous arrestees" were yet to be processed, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier told a news conference.
Demonstrators moved to block two roads over the weekend, camping on private land in an effort to stop Energy Transfer Partners construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline -- the subject of a months-long protest by Native Americans and supporters.
The project resumed construction earlier this month after courts refused to halt it.
"We have tried everything we possibly could, talked to everybody we could," Kirchmeier said Thursday of attempts to get protesters to leave voluntarily, adding that their refusal forced law enforcement to act.
As police moved in, protesters created a barricade with tires and wooden poles, briefly lighting it on fire.
Police in riot helmets used a sound cannon device and pepper spray during operations that lasted more than five hours. Most protesters left voluntarily or were arrested, officials said.
"Hopefully, we have persuaded these protesters that our state highways and county highways, private property, is not the place to carry out a peaceful protest," North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple said at a separate news conference.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose reservation is close to the pipeline s route, objects to the project, saying it would endanger the tribe s water supply by crossing the nearby Missouri River, and destroy sacred Native American sites.
Dallas Goldtooth, a protester at the scene of the Thursday standoff, said police were "very aggressive" and had also used bean bags and a "concussion grenade."
"The police action today was to remove protectors from this land," he said.
Kirchmeier could not immediately confirm Goldtooth s account, saying operations were still ongoing, but said protesters were free to exercise their free speech rights "as long as it was done legal and lawful."
The Native American-led protest has grown into a larger movement in the United States, drawing in other tribes, environmentalists and advocates for Native Americans.
The Sioux tribe criticized the sheriff s actions Thursday.
The tribe had asked the Obama administration to intervene to stop the pipeline construction and for the Justice Department to investigate "law enforcement abuses at the site," spokeswoman Sue Evans said.
The federal government has twice asked the pipeline operator to voluntarily pause construction near the tribe s reservation while the authorities reconsider the project s route.
But courts have refused to compel a halt. Energy Transfer Partners, which insists the pipeline complies with the law, resumed construction on October 11.
