WA: Police missing as loggers attack protest camp

AAP General News (Australia)
08-23-1999
WA: Police missing as loggers attack protest camp

Western Australia's logging debate has turned violent with anti-logging protesters accusing
forestry workers of smashing and burning their camp.

Now a police inquiry is underway into conservationists' claims that police did nothing to
protect them.

Opponents of logging say 40 men armed with axes and baseball bats on Saturday stormed their
camp near Manjimup, south of Perth, and ordered 13 protesters to leave.

About 1500 jobs are expected to be lost under the WA government's revised forest agreement,
which follows months of pressure on Premier RICHARD COURT by pro-conservation forces.

JESS BECKERLING, a spokeswoman for the camp, says police didn't intervene even though they
had been warned of the possibility of a raid by loggers, and when it was likely to occur.

A spokesman for Assistant Police Commissioner BOB KUCERA says police had warned the
protesters on Friday they should leave the protest camp for their own safety.

Earlier a spokesperson for Police Minister KEVIN PRINCE said officers had been on the way
to the protest camp on Saturday morning but had been diverted to another incident.

AAP RTV jrh/cjh/sp/rat

KEYWORD: FORESTS WA (PERTH)

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