Utrecht (Netherlands): Eviction Ubica

Saturday May 25th at 3pm, the last squatter of the Ubica was removed from the building. Since friday evening 11pm, police and riot police were busy evicting the building on the Ganzenmarkt in Utrecht.

After nine month procedures, the higher court decided on friday that the squatters had to leave the building by monday. The squatters took the initiative not to wait. “The authorities choose the confrontation. Vloet, the judge and the City had chosen this path, not us”, according a statement made by the squatters.

By attacking the City Hall and setting on fire car tires on Friday night, the squatters gave no choice to the police but to react. Police officers and police vehicles were targeted by fire works and paint. 10 people barricaded themselves in the 13th century old house, some of them were chained with lock-ons. This ensured the eviction would take such a long time.
The squatters from the Ubica expressed their anger because according to them, the house is back in the hands from Vloet. Squatter Jochem declared: “Vloet declared not to want to sell the house. Then he said he wants to bring back the property in the state of twenty years ago: a burned-out ruin. We will not stand by and watch the property back into the hands of a criminal.”

Wim Vloet, the owner of the house is a notorious slumlord in Utrecht. He was supposed to sell the property to Willem Klaassen, who wants to establish a hotel. Jochem: “Vloet is the one that let the property dilapidate over twenty years. Vloet has ignored every non-compliance penalty from the municipality and the building did not recover. Why should we now trust that he would do his best for this monumental building?”

During a meeting on Saturday, local residents reacted shocked. They are angry about the paint on the street and all the commotion, the closure of a big part of the square. “Very understandable, and we apologise for the inconvenience. I’d like to mention here that the decision to evict did not came from us. We have accelerated the process. You can also consider that without the squatters, the building would had never survived these last twenty years.” About the paint, Jochem says: “It was not aimed at the residents, their belongings nor any citizen, but to keep police away. No one has been injured, no dangerous objects such as stones were thrown, and all the paint can be washed away.”
The demonstration the squatters had announced for Saturday night has been cancelled.

Ubica http://ubica.squat.net/
Article published on Indymedia https://www.indymedia.nl/node/15954