Greta Thunberg, an environmental activist, was held twice during an Indigenous rights demonstration in Oslo on Wednesday, with police removing her and other demonstrators from the finance ministry and then the environment ministry.
Thunberg joined demonstrators on Monday calling for the removal of 151 wind turbines from reindeer pastures used by Sami herders in central Norway. They argue that the transition to green energy should not jeopardize Indigenous rights.
Demonstrators have blocked access to some government facilities in recent days, putting the centre-left minority administration in crisis mode and forcing Energy Minister Terje Aasland to cancel an official travel to Britain.
The turbines, which were built on two wind farms near Fosen as part of Europe’s largest onshore wind power complex, were deemed to infringe Sami rights under international agreements by Norway’s supreme court in 2021, although they are still operational more than 16 months later.
While hundreds of demonstrators screamed slogans, police officers from the finance ministry hoisted and transported Thunberg, who was clutching a red, blue, yellow, and green Sami flag.
“We want to make it very clear that it is the Norwegian state that is committing the real crime here, for violating human rights,” she told Reuters minutes before she was removed.
Thunberg and other activists were eventually removed by police after blocking the entrance of the Climate and Environment Ministry.
The Swedish activist, seen by many as a global standard-bearer of the struggle to stop the world’s dependency on carbon-based energy, was released along with other imprisoned demonstrators.
Reindeer herders claim that the sight and sound of the massive wind turbines frightens their animals and disrupts age-old rituals.
According to Reuters, the president of Norway’s Sami parliament, an elected consultative group, will meet with the energy minister on Thursday and demand an apology before negotiating a solution.
“We need the government to clearly acknowledge that there is a violation of human rights, and then act accordingly and honour the matter with the seriousness it deserves,” Silje Karine Mutoka said.
Notwithstanding the Supreme Court judgement, the energy ministry has stated that the turbines pose a legal problem and that it hopes to find a settlement, but that a new decision in the Fosen case could take another year.
On Tuesday, activists said that they had gathered nearly $100,000 in previous days to assist individual demonstrators in paying police fines.