Anti-government protesters vow to continue standoff in Oregon
Armed anti-government protesters in the US state of Oregon, who took over a federal building on Saturday, have vowed to continue their occupation even as local officials told the group to leave.
"We came very well prepared. We're in it for the long haul," protester Jon Ritzheimer said.
The occupation marked the latest outbreak of anger against the US government over federally owned land in Western states, long seen by political conservatives in the region as an intrusion on property rights and individual freedom.
Harney County Sheriff David Ward and county Judge Steven Grasty on Monday demanded that self-styled militiamen peacefully end their 3-day-old anti-government siege.
Saturday's takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge outside the town of Burns, Oregon, was spurred by the imprisonment of two ranchers for setting fires that spread to federal land.
The US National Wildlife Refuge System is the system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife and plants.
The group, which calls itself the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, has vowed to remain in the building until federally owned land is returned "back to the people."
The occupiers have also been calling for the release of Dwight Hammond, 73, and his son Steven, 46, the two detained ranchers.
Protest leader Ammon Bundy is the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, whose ranch was the scene of an armed demonstration against federal Bureau of Land Management officials in 2014.
"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," Ammon Bundy said.
The FBI, which is monitoring the situation, hasn't specified how long it will wait before it begins to force the protesters out. The agency said in a statement it was seeking a "peaceful resolution."
Obama administration officials said US law enforcement officers had been told to avoid a violent confrontation with the occupiers.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has described the Bundys’ views as closely aligned with those of the sovereign citizen movement, which generally believes that the US government is illegitimate.
The sovereign citizen movement is considered by the FBI as the nation’s top domestic terrorism threat.
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