Dakota Pipeline

Depuis plusieurs mois, des centaines de Sioux du Dakota du Sud s’opposent à un projet d’oléoduc qui menace à la fois leurs sources d’eau potable et des sites ancestraux. Leur lutte contre le Dakota Access Pipeline a réussi à attirer l’attention du monde entier. Fin octobre, les opposants ont été sévèrement réprimés par les forces de l’ordre, qui ont procédé à plus d’une centaine d’arrestations.

President Barack Obama has said the US Army Corps of Engineers is considering ways of rerouting the Dakota Access Pipeline amid an eight-month-long protest staged by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. The Standing Rock Sioux are protesting the pipeline’s route due to the potential threats it poses to drinking water supplies and sacred sites. Their cause has attracted millions of dollars in support.

On Monday, October 17, District Judge John Grinsteiner rejected the “riot” charge that had been leveled against Amy Goodman for her coverage of a September 3 Dakota Access Pipeline protest. Standing before the Morton County courthouse, surrounded by supporters, Goodman said: “It is a great honor to be here today. The judge’s decision to reject the State’s Attorney Ladd Erickson’s attempt to prosecute a journalist—in this case, me—is a great vindication of the First Amendment.” And she added: “[W]e encourage all of the media to come here. We certainly will continue to cover this struggle.”

G4S, a company hiring security staff to guard the hotly contested Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL), also works to guard oil and gas industry assets in war-torn Iraq, and has come under fire by the United Nations for human rights abuses allegedly committed while overseeing a BP pipeline in Colombia and elsewhere while on other assignments.