Post date: Oct 19, 2011 12:39:20 PM
Clashes erupt as riot police move in to evict families who have been living for years at the UK's largest illegal travellers' site. Simon Hanna reports.
UK-DALE FARM - Police in riot gear move in to clear Dale Farm, marking the end of a decade long legal battle.
Clashes erupted as some of the 400 people who have been living here resisted their eviction.This is the largest illegal travellers' site in the UK, where the local council argues that residents violated planning laws by building on protected land.
But dozens of families have called this place home for years, and despite their imminent eviction some vowed not to give up.
UNIDENTIFIED DALE FARM RESIDENT, SAYING:
"It'll be a slow, long battle. We've lost but in here (POINTS TO CHEST) we haven't lost. In here (POINTS TO HEAD) we haven't lost because we're still free and the government don't want us to be free mentally and physically. You can lock us in prison, you can put us in a house, just like the aborigines. But you can't take our hearts, you can't take our minds and we're free."
Other Dale Farm residents criticised the heavy handed tactics employed by the police as they moved in.
MARGARET, DALE FARM RESIDENT, SAYING:
"It was too quick. So when we saw the place we all got shoved and we tried to get out, but they over-powered us. We couldn't move and they just kept shoving us out of the way. So they shoved me, I fell on the ground and my friend fell on her back. She hurt her back and I hurt my face at the wall there at the front. They're rough."
The site's fate was sealed last week after residents lost a final legal battle challenging the eviction.
Travellers say the clearance is a breach of their human rights, targeting a vulnerable group whose way of life does not fit in with the mainstream..
Simon Hanna, Reuters.