Eco-Guerrillas Hit Biotech
Lab in Minnesota

January 30, 2002

Group Claims Responsibility for Fire

By: CHRIS WILLIAMS--Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS

A radical environmental group claimed responsibility Wednesday for a fire
that damaged the construction site of a University of Minnesota research
lab.

The Earth Liberation Front said in a statement that it burned a trailer and
two pieces of heavy machinery at the construction site of the Microbial and
Plant Genomics Research Center on the school's St. Paul campus to protest
genetic engineering. FBI spokesman Paul McCabe said the agency is
investigating the Saturday fire. No one was hurt.

"This amounts to domestic terrorism," said Robert Elde, dean of the College
of Biological Sciences.

Investigators previously said the fire appeared to be arson and that it
began in a construction trailer a few feet from the Crops Research building,
which was damaged.

University spokeswoman Amy Phenix said construction on the new $20-million
building was not very far along and that the project will continue.

The new center will house 185 scientists who will research microbes and
plants to reduce the use of pesticides and fertilizers in agriculture.

The ELF also claimed responsibility for the vandalism of a greenhouse at the
university in February 2000 that destroyed experiments on genetically
engineered oat crops.