A county sheriff and judge on Monday demanded that members of a self-styled militia occupying a remote US wildlife center in Oregon peacefully end their three-day-old anti-government siege, telling the protesters: “It’s time for you to leave our community.”
The flashpoint for Saturday’s takeover of the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge outside the town of Burns, Oregon, was the imminent incarceration of two ranchers convicted of arson and resentenced to longer prison terms.
However, the occupation marked the latest flare-up of anger against the US government over federal management of public land in the West, long seen by political conservatives in the region as an intrusion on individual freedom and property rights.
Photo: AFP
Federal authorities have so far kept their distance from the wildlife refuge, which remained closed to visitors.
The FBI said in a statement it was seeking a “peaceful resolution to the situation,” while officials in US President Barack Obama’s administration said US law enforcement officers had been told to avoid a violent confrontation with the occupiers.
Protest leader Ammon Bundy — whose father’s ranch in Nevada was the scene of an armed standoff against federal land managers in 2014 — on Monday told reporters his group had named itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom and was making a stand for personal liberty.
“They [the federal government] are coming down into the states and taking over the land and the resources, putting the people into duress, putting the people into poverty,” he said.
Flanked by supporters, Bundy declined to say how many were participating in the takeover, but about a half-dozen occupiers were visible to reporters, some in a watchtower on the property and others standing around a vehicle used to block an access road.
The two ranchers whose cause Bundy’s group has embraced — Dwight Hammond Jr and his son, Steven — turned themselves over to federal authorities in California earlier on Monday.
Some residents in Burns, a town of about 3,000 people about 451km southeast of Portland, voiced sympathy with the militia group’s cause, if not its methods, but many said they viewed the occupation as mostly, if not entirely, the work of outside agitators — a sentiment echoed by Harney County Sheriff David Ward.
“You said you were here to help the citizens of Harney County,” Ward said at a news conference in Burns, addressing Bundy’s group in a statement he read on behalf of himself and Harney County Judge Steven Grasty. “It is time for you to leave our community, go home to your families, and end this peacefully.”
The sheriff said the takeover had “significantly impacted” the local community, where authorities have closed public schools and some government offices as a precaution.
Three administration officials said that federal authorities were following US policy guidelines instituted to prevent such standoffs from turning violent in the wake of deadly clashes at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas in the early 1990s.
The takeover in Oregon drew criticism on social media, with some users asking if the occupiers would have been treated differently if they had been black or Muslim.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS