COPENHAGEN, Denmark, 27 Feb: Dozens of activists, including Greta Thunberg of neighboring Sweden, blocked the entrance to Norway\u2019s energy ministry in Oslo Monday to protest a wind farm they say hinders the rights of the Sami Indigenous people to raise reindeer in Arctic Norway.
\nThe activists, mainly teenagers, lay outside the ministry entrance holding Sami flags and a poster reading \u201cLand Back.\u201d
\nThe protesters from organizations called Young Friends of The Earth Norway and the Norwegian Sami Association\u2019s youth council NSR-Nuorat, said \u201cthe ongoing human rights violations\u201d against Sami reindeer herders \u201cmust come to an end.\u201d Several of the activists donned the Sami\u2019s traditional bright-colored dress and put up a tent used by the Arctic people.
\nIn October 2021, Norway\u2019s Supreme Court ruled that the construction of the wind turbines violated the rights of the Sami, who have been using the land to raise reindeer for centuries. However, the wind farm is still operating.
\n\u201cIt is absurd that the Norwegian government has chosen to ignore the ruling,\u201d said Thunberg, who joined the protest early Monday.
\nOver the weekend, the protesters had occupied the ministry\u2019s lobby but were evicted by police early Monday, according to Norwegian broadcaster NRK. They shifted their protest to chaining themselves outside the main entrance to the ministry, prompting authorities to urge employees to work from home.
\nBy chaining themselves, \u201cwe make it practically more difficult to move us,\u201d activist Ella Marie H\u00e6tta Isaksen told NRK.
\nNorway\u2019s Energy Minister Terje Aasland told NRK that although the Supreme Court has ruled that the construction of the wind farm is invalid, the court does not say anything about what should happen to it.
\nThe government must \u201cmake new decisions that are in line with the premise of the Supreme Court\u2019s judgment,\u201d Aasland told the broadcaster.
\nOther activists who were sitting outside the doors of nearby government buildings \u201chave been ordered to move and if they don\u2019t we will remove them by force,\u201d said police spokesman Brian Skotnes shortly before officers were seen carrying activists away. They were not arrested. AP<\/p>\n
The Sami live in Lapland, which stretches from northern parts of Norway through Sweden and Finland to Russia. They once faced oppression of their culture, including bans on the use of their native tongue.
\nToday the nomadic people live mostly modern lifestyles but still tend reindeer. AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, 27 Feb: Dozens of activists, including Greta Thunberg of neighboring Sweden, blocked the entrance to Norway\u2019s energy ministry in Oslo Monday to protest a wind farm they say hinders the rights of the Sami Indigenous people to raise reindeer in Arctic Norway. The activists, mainly teenagers, lay outside the ministry entrance holding Sami […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-211857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}