Armed protesters occupy federal building in US

Armed protesters occupied a building in a national wildlife refuge in Oregon, accusing authorities of unfairly punishing two farmers.

Harney County residents march in support of the Hammond family. Photo: Oregon Live.

The occupation, which began on January 2, followed a rally in Burns, Oregon, in support of Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steven Hammond, Reuters reported. Burns is a small city about 50 miles north of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

The protest was led by Ammon Bundy. Ammon Bundy is the son of Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher whose family staged an armed protest against the Bureau of Land Management in April 2014. The agency tried to seize the Bundys’ cattle because they had not paid grazing fees. Federal agents later withdrew for safety reasons and returned the cattle to the Bundys.

Oregon and federal authorities have not yet announced how they will handle the incident. The number of people involved is unknown, Jason Holm, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management, said in a statement. No employees were in the building.

In a Facebook post, Bundy said the occupation was in response to government interference with the rights of private property owners. Some of the occupants were armed.

CNN quoted prosecutors as saying the Hammonds burned about 52.6 hectares to cover up poaching and were sentenced to five years in prison. The Hammonds admitted to burning the forest but said it was to limit the growth of harmful plants and protect the farm from wildfires. The Hammonds' farm is adjacent to the southern part of the reserve.

The Hammonds are expected to return to prison today after federal prosecutors successfully extended their sentences, saying they did not need any help from the Bundys.

"Ammon Bundy and his group/organization do not represent the Hammond family," W. Alan Schroeder, the Hammonds' attorney, wrote in a letter to the sheriff of Harney County, southeastern Oregon.

Location of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Graphic: Washington Post.

The case is part of a decades-long conflict between ranchers and the federal government over how Washington regulates hundreds of thousands of grazing and hunting areas. Critics say the government often oversteps its authority and wields its power arbitrarily and without accountability.

According to VNE