[Onthebarricades] Germany G8 Blockades 3 - mainstream media reports part 2

[Andy]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1896159.ece


June 7, 2007
Clown army tries hard to make fools of the police

Roger Boyes in Heiligendamm
For a brief moment it looked as if the antiG8 protesters had won a battle, 
if not the war.
They failed to punch a hole in the eight-mile (13km) steel and barbed-wire 
fence that was guarding world leaders. But for a few hours they did come 
within 20 yards before being beaten back by riot police firing high-powered 
jets of water.
Perhaps, just perhaps - much depended on the sea winds around Heiligendamm - 
President Bush was able to hear them shout: "No justice, no peace!"
It was an instructive piece of guerrilla protest, the result of a year of 
tactical planning. "We successfully captured two access roads to the G8 
summit," Christoph Kleine, a leading member of the radical Interventionist 
Left, said. "We are very satisfied."
The protesters plan to stay for 24 hours within about 200m (650ft) of the 
leaders' compound, mimicking a medieval siege. "We don't have to storm the 
wall. That wall will always be the symbol of how the G8 is excluding the 
rest of the world," he said.
The protesters used what is known as the Five Finger strategy, borrowing 
from the guerrilla warfare textbooks of Mao Zedong and Che Guevara.
Two wings of the protest movement managed to paralyse stretches of the 
motorway linking Rostock airport to the G8. A third detachment blocked the 
narrow-gauge railway track on which the vintage Molli locomotive attempted 
to ferry journalists into the G8 security compound to meet José Manuel 
Barroso, the European Commission President. The journalists eventually had 
to be transported by sea.
One of the key diversionary tactics involved a group known as the Rebel 
Clown Army. They had their first real outing at the Gleneagles G8 summit two 
years ago and, in the current skirmishes, are fielding some 500 people with 
red noses and floppy boots.
Typically they surround police vans, squirt them with water pistols, jump on 
car bonnets to distract officers from other, more serious, protest actions. 
Three - Matthias, Daniel and Kati - drove a police checkpoint to distraction 
with bad jokes and a mock silver-foil machinegun.
"Feeling cold then?" Daniel asked as one policeman started to put on his 
armour. "Take us with you, we'll cheer you up," Matthais said, pretending to 
vomit in their laps.
Later police claimed that militants had been shedding their black shirts and 
donning clown masks to come up close and cause injury. A spokesman said that 
eight officers had been treated for skin irritations caused from a fluid 
shot.
"That's the funniest thing I've heard all day," said the Rebel Clown Army 
spokesman, Matthias Häberlein. "We use the purest of soap bubbles." He 
added: "Of course anyone can dress up as a clown. It's a human right."
Clowns, Greens, blackshirted radicals, gay-rights activists and antinuclear 
campaigners prepared for a vigil within loudspeaker distance of the G8 
leaders last night. The idea, they said, was to make sure that they did not 
sleep easy.

http://www.tolerance.ca/Article.aspx?ID=694&L=fr


Médias


Police use tear gas, water cannons against G8 protesters
(Version anglaise seulement)

HEILIGENDAMM/KUEHLUNGSBORN (Germany) - German police used tear gas and water 
cannons Wednesday to disperse G8 protesters who turned violent at the G8 
summit, German media reported.

Young people clad in black threw stones at riot police, who have found it 
difficult to separate them from peaceful protesters. As a result, both 
checkpoints into the summit security zone have been blocked off, and 
indiscriminate riot control methods have been employed.

 Police use tear gas, water cannons against G8 protesters
(Version anglaise seulement)

HEILIGENDAMM/KUEHLUNGSBORN (Germany) - German police used tear gas and water 
cannons Wednesday to disperse G8 protesters who turned violent at the G8 
summit, German media reported.

Young people clad in black threw stones at riot police, who have found it 
difficult to separate them from peaceful protesters. As a result, both 
checkpoints into the summit security zone have been blocked off, and 
indiscriminate riot control methods have been employed.


The main road from the Rostock Airport and other roads toward Heiligendamm 
have been blocked since earlier today by rows of people engaged in a 
sit-down protest, as well as barricades.

Protesters blocked the small-gauge railroad, the only way to get from the 
media center at the neighboring town of Kuehlungsborn, where all security 
checks are to be passed, and the summit's main venue at Heiligendamm.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=06e4ef9f-d449-4396-afd6-0a6c1df8b46c&k=11465

Police use water cannons on protesters at G8 summit; airport roads blocked
An activist dressed as a clown sits in front of police at the road between 
Bad Doberan and Heiligendamm. (AP Photo/Frank Hormann)

Vanessa Gera, Canadian Press
Published: Wednesday, June 06, 2007
HINTER BOLLHAGEN, Germany (AP) - Police used water cannons to scatter 
stone-throwing demonstrators Wednesday as several thousand protesters 
swarmed a 12-kilometre fence surrounding the G8 summit where U.S. President 
George W. Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met.
An estimated 10,000 demonstrators had reached the fence by the afternoon, 
police said, while other protesters blocked roads leading from the airport 
to the summit site of Heiligendamm on the Baltic Sea coast in northern 
Germany as leaders began arriving on the first day of the three-day summit.
"If we can block them, if they can get their lunch with a few hours' delay, 
that is fine," Emil Begtrup-Bright, who said he was a member of the 
left-wing grassroots group called Socialist Youth Forum, told Denmark's TV2 
News channel.
Police planned to clear the roughly 9,000 people who continued to block the 
main traffic routes around Heiligendamm and the Rostock airport, spokesman 
Lueder Behrens said, insisting they would do so in a way that would 
"de-escalate" the situation.
At least eight officers were injured in clashes with protesters earlier in 
the day, Behrens said, none of them seriously. There was no immediate 
information on injuries among demonstrators.
"We are more than happy with our performance," said Christoph Kleine of the 
protest group Block G8.
After protesters rushed to the fence, Germany's constitutional court upheld 
a lower court's ban on a protest march that would have begun at various 
points and converged on Heiligendamm. The Karlsruhe-based federal court 
upheld a ban against protests within 200 metres of the fence.
At one section, hundreds of protesters chanted "Peace" and "Free G8! Free 
G8!" while inside riot police gathered, wearing helmets and bearing 
transparent shields.
Some police held the leashes of dogs as they watched the protesters, who 
numbered more than 150 near the small town of Hinter Bollhagen, less than 
three kilometres from the summit site.
"What they're doing behind that fence is illegitimate," said Philipp 
Schweizer, a 26-year-old social worker from Munich. "They're making 
decisions about countries who don't have any representation."
Elsewhere, one group laid branches across a small-gauge railway used to 
transport journalists to Heiligendamm from the summit centre in nearby 
Kuehlungsborn, running in various directions until a detachment in riot gear 
corralled them in one area.
Police spokesman Manfred Luetjann said the protesters had managed to block 
two routes leading from the airport in Rostock and to breach security to 
reach the imposing fence surrounding the resort.
Protesters who reached the fence also targeted two police control points, 
pelting them with stones before authorities turned water cannons on them, 
Luetjann said. He had no information about injuries or arrests.
Video taken by AP Television News showed a water cannon firing over the 
protesters, but two volleys could be seen hitting protesters directly.
The incident came after a protest Saturday in nearby Rostock, where several 
thousand black-hooded protesters hurled rocks and bottles at police near the 
end of a march and rally by some 25,000 people. About 400 police officers 
were injured.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2578763,00.html


Opposition | 06.06.2007
Police Prevent Protests as G8 Summit Gets Going in Germany

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Police officials didn't 
want to take any chances and came out in force

As G8 leaders arrived in northern Germany Wednesday for their annual summit, 
German police imposed strict limits on protestors, effectively preventing 
most to get anywhere near the airport.
With the leaders and delegations from the G8 nations and the Plus Five 
observer countries jetting into Rostock Laage military air base on 
Wednesday, the summit proper really began. As if to emphasize that whatever 
had gone before had just been a dry run for the main event, the police made 
their own statement to that effect. The day started with what could only be 
described as widespread lockdown of infrastructure and ended with a 
heavy-handed clampdown on the opposition.

The arrival of the G8 heads had been a red letter day in the protestors' 
diary from the very beginning. Even though their main target, US President 
George Bush, had attempted to avoid the predicted mass picketing of Laage 
airport by arriving a day earlier, there were still seven other leaders to 
vent anger against. For the past few days, the issues had been the 
motivation to protest. Now the people responsible for those issues were 
coming and a predicted 8,000 to 10,000 demonstrators were ready to give them 
a welcome they would never forget.

Police outnumber protestors

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: 
Demonstrators on their way to the airport
The police had other plans. From the early morning, it was evident that the 
"two police officers for every protestor" rumor was no longer in dispute. 
The massed ranks of heavily armored officers stationed on roads, bridges and 
railway tracks were sending out a visible message: you shall not pass. The 
16,000 regular police and 2,000 special officers drafted in for the summit 
were being used to full effect.

With the first arrival due to land at Laage at 10 a.m., hundreds of 
protestors streamed out of the Rostock Fischereihafen camp towards their own 
private vehicles and the specially organized buses waiting to take them the 
few kilometers to the airport while the morning was still in its infancy. 
Some of them didn't even make it out of the camp car park.

Preventing protest

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Police 
made it clear that demonstrators would not get past them
The first full bus was ready to depart when it was surrounded by police 
wagons. Officers ordered the passengers out of the bus and the vehicle was 
slowly searched while bags and pockets were emptied on demand. Another bus 
arrived and was immediately impounded, its human cargo forced to get 
comfortable on the grass verge. For how long, it is hard to say. Many never 
made it out of Rostock.

There were alternative routes, however. But security had not been the only 
reason why Laage had been chosen as the arrival point. It is horrendously 
difficult to get to by public transport and even more so when the roads and 
train tracks are closed down. Buses carrying protestors were stopped 
kilometers from the airport, unloaded and the passengers allowed to continue 
to a specified containment point away from Laage on foot. And these were the 
lucky ones. Mysteriously coincidental train malfunctions paralyzed the rail 
system just after rush hour leaving many protestors stranded and angry. This 
would later contribute to frustration and violence.

Few get through

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Police 
officers redirected protestors
Those who had set out just in time to avoid the main lockdown of the 
transport system around Laage were met at the containment points by rows of 
riot police. The plan had been to picket the airport at four main sites 
around its perimeter. With numbers expected in the region of 8,000 
demonstrators, it had been planned that around 2,000 would go to each. The 
road blocks and train cancellations had contributed to a massive decimation 
of those numbers. The few hundred which had gathered at the mouth of the 
airport's service road milled around in front of the police, some muttering 
nervously about the prevalence of Unit 23, the hardest and most 
uncompromising officers bandied together from various forces to create an 
elite division.

Various attempts to begin the demonstration were stopped by senior police 
officers. There would be protests allowed, but only 50 people at a time 
would be let through the cordons to demonstrate at the airport's gates. From 
an expected crowd of 2,000, as few as 37 protestors eventually made it to 
the gate. Once there, over 70 police officers blocked the entrance and 
forced the small group of protestors onto a grass verge opposite and held 
them there for an hour.

Deflated demonstrators

Meanwhile, reports were phoned in to the group leader from an associate at 
Bad Doberan about a major incident involving over a thousand protestors who 
had been denied the chance to travel to Laage and a large contingent of riot 
police. According to the source in Bad Doberan, clashes had escalated 
quickly and tear gas and water cannons were being used to quell the unrest. 
There was even an unsubstantiated report that a badly injured protestor had 
been denied medical assistance by police officers.

The mood of those at Laage was already deflated before hearing this. The 
planned blockade and show of strength had been turned into a pathetic joke 
by a well-coordinated and ruthless police operation. By denying access to 
thousands and controlling to the footstep the movements of those which did 
make it to the boundaries of the airport, the police effectively removed all 
opposition at the point of entry for the G8 leaders.

And in Bad Doberan, they showed that they had learned the mistakes of the 
weekend where sheer numbers could not make up for the lack of preparation in 
dealing with a rioting mob. On Wednesday, the police struck hard and fast to 
end the unrest. They more than made up for their shortcomings on previous 
unruly days. On Wednesday, they could claim a victory. Only in the future 
will it really be clear what was lost.


http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B01574239-7B55-4E47-88F7-400F042ABC0C%7D)&language=EN


Protestors Block Access to G8 Summit
Heiligendamm, Germany, Jun 7 (Prensa Latina) Although Germany forbade access 
to the sea resort hosting the summit of the seven most developed countries 
plus Russia (G8), thousands of anti-globalization activists blocked the main 
routes to the venue on Thursday.
Yesterday, despite a prohibition to come within 3 miles of the 8-foot, 8 
mile wall surrounding the meeting place, five groups of protestors converged 
on the wall and were repelled by police with clubs, water and teargas. 
Thirty protestors were arrested yesterday and early today.
Police intercepted two Greenpeace boats attempting a sea landing and the 
protest convened for today has been banned, but 70,000 people are expected 
at the anti-globalization concert in neighboring Rostock with such stars as 
U2, Bono, Bob Geldof and German singer Herbert Gronemayer.
Meanwhile the G8 leaders debate climate change, Washington s plans for an 
anti-missile system in Eastern Europe, a new status for Kosovo and the 
failure to provide economic assistance to Africa.
In an open letter, over 50 organizations urged German Chancellor Angela 
Merkel for new accords to halve current gas emissions causing global 
warming.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21870390-1702,00.html

Police capsize protesters' boats at G8
By Knut Engelmann and Erik Kirschbaum in Heiligendamm
June 08, 2007 08:11am
Article from: Reuters
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POLICE rammed two inflatable speed boats that breached a security zone 
around a German seaside resort where world leaders were meeting, tipping 
activists into the Baltic and injuring three of them.
Land access to the Group of Eight (G8) summit venue, a luxury hotel in the 
small seaside town of Heiligendamm, was blocked for a second day as 
thousands of anti-globalisation protesters jammed nearby roads and scuffled 
with riot police.
Police said nearly 260 protesters had been detained yesterday, adding to 
almost 160 detentions on Wednesday around the 12km fence sealing off 
Heiligendamm.
Witnesses said at least two demonstrators were injured.
A spokesman for environmental pressure group Greenpeace said as many as 11 
rubber dinghies had attempted to deliver a message to G8 leaders asking them 
to commit to substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
Four protesters ended up in the Baltic waters after patrol boats chased them 
at high speed and intercepted them, while police helicopters clattered 
overhead.
Greenpeace spokesman Tobias Muenchmeyer said a number of activists had been 
detained, and their boats impounded. Police said three protesters and a 
policemen were injured.
Separately, police in the city of Rostock detained what they said were some 
160 supporters of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) who 
demonstrated there against the G8. Authorities had refused to grant them 
permission to demonstrate.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel dismissed the Greenpeace protest.
"I hope they won't emit too much CO2 with their boat trips out there on the 
Baltic sea," Ms Merkel said after G8 leaders agreed to pursue "substantial" 
cuts in greenhouse gases.
Rock concert
Riot police used water cannon and pepper spray to clear an access road to 
Heiligendamm that had been blocked by some 200 anti-G8 demonstrators, as 
thousands more joined a second day of protests at the fence around the 
summit complex.
The main entrance to Heiligendamm has been blocked for over 24 hours. Some 
4000 demonstrators, many of whom had spent the night sleeping in front of 
the security fence, were sitting on the narrow, tree-lined road, determined 
not to move until the summit officially ends today.
Germany's constitutional court has banned demonstrations in a 5km zone 
around the fence, but the mostly peaceful demonstrators have largely ignored 
the court order.
Germany has deployed some 16,000 police and security personnel in the 
coastal area around Heiligendamm in its biggest single security operation 
since World War II.
In the nearby port city of Rostock, some 70,000 people attended an anti-G8 
concert featuring rock stars Bono and Bob Geldof, who have been lobbying 
world leaders to honour aid pledges they made to Africa two years ago.
Additional reporting by Sabine Siebold

http://www.itv.com/news/adeb85e007ea87f20565cc1037540f8a.html


Protesters detained in G8 demos
12.45, Thu Jun 7 2007

Protesters who blocked a road leading to the site of the G8 summit and led 
police on a boat chase in the Baltic have been arrested.
At the start of the two-day annual Group of Eight gathering, thousands of 
demonstrators dodged the massive police presence and used tree trunks to 
blockade a road between Rostock and Bad Doberan before conducting a sit-down 
protest.
They had spent the night in the no-demonstration zone within a kilometre 
(half a mile) of the security fence surrounding the summit at the 
picturesque Baltic coastal resort of Heiligendamm.
Elsewhere, Greenpeace activists in a high-speed boat led security vessels on 
a chase before being intercepted in the Baltic Sea within sight of the 
shore.
Several activists in another boat, dressed in yellow flotation outfits, went 
overboard briefly after being pursued by police. Authorities have sealed off 
the waters and airspace around the summit as part of security precautions.
Around 16,000 police officers, along with scores of armoured personnel 
carriers, trucks with water-cannons atop and other support vehicles have 
also been deployed.

http://www.eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=9257


Tuesday, June 05, 2007 at 16:46
Subject: /G8-Demos/Germany/

ROUNDUP: Protesters prepare sit-ins to disrupt G8 summit

Rostock, Germany (dpa) - Protesters, who lost a last-ditch bid Tuesday for 
court permission to march close to this week's G8 summit, prepared in 
Germany to mount sit-down invasions of roads when the three-day event begins 
Wednesday.

Police, who were taken by surprise by anti-G8 rioting Saturday that left 
nearly 1,000 people injured, meanwhile said they were facing a form of 
chemical warfare, with protesters dressed as clowns squirting them with a 
fluid that attacks the skin.

Eight police had needed hospital treatment, a spokesman said in Rostock, a 
city 25 kilometres north-east of the Heiligendamm beachside summit venue 
where small-scale protests were continuing and 11 persons were detained 
Tuesday.

At the first summary trial to deal with Saturday's rioters, a man aged 31 
was sent to jail for 10 months for throwing stones at several police 
officers. Eight more persons, many of them non-German, were to come up for 
trial on Wednesday.

Police said the Black Block, an informal network of violence-prone militants 
who don black clothing and masks and congregate in the marches, had 
significant French, Russian and Ukrainian membership in Rostock alongside 
local leftists from Hamburg and Berlin.

"These militants are not here to protest at the G8 but rather to riot 
against the police," charged police spokesman Axel Falkenberg. He said there 
was no evidence of more radicals rushing to Rostock to reinforce the Black 
Block, which numbered about 2,500.

Falkenberg said the chemical fluid used against police had not been sprayed 
by the Black Block but by a group called the Clown's Army, whose members 
dress in circus-clown costumes and make-up.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview the violence on Saturday had 
been shocking and "sadly proved that strict security precautions are 
necessary."

"However I was glad to hear that a majority of the demonstrators dissociated 
themselves from the violence," she said.

She added, "Last Saturday made clear yet again, to the peaceful 
demonstrators as well, that tolerance is not the right response to people 
using violence."

In the southern city of Karlsruhe, Germany's constitutional court confirmed 
junior judges' legal restrictions on the demonstrations.

At the Kempinski Grand Hotel in Heiligendamm, only 15 representative 
protesters were allowed to hold a vigil starting Tuesday, while 
demonstrators would also face a quota of 50 at a gate of Rostock airport 
where the eight delegations were to land.

A mass demonstration at the airport must take place hundreds of metres away. 
Administrative tribunals had earlier modified the various restrictions put 
in place by the police.

An appeal against a requirement that a mass protest on Thursday remain on a 
highway which comes no closer than 6 kilometres to the summit hotel will be 
decided Wednesday, a court spokeswoman said.

Germany has deployed 16,000 police to protect the leaders of seven Western 
nations and Russia at the G8 summit as well as 10 other national leaders who 
are to join them on the last day, Friday.

The police are preparing to deal with both violent attack by the Black Block 
and non-violent tactics from peaceful protesters.

Attac, a European group that believes globalization is dangerous and is 
leading the protests, said Tuesday it was not organizing sit-downs and did 
not belong to Block G8, a group overseeing a planned "blockade," but knew 
many Attac members would be taking part.

It said taking part in a sit-down was a misdemeanour, not a felony, so 
German police must only use "proportionate" force to clear sit-downs and 
ought not to injure anybody while doing so.

Road-block organizers promised Tuesday they would ask peaceful demonstrators 
to abandon any blockade if the Black Block took over and the incident turned 
into a violent confrontation.

Police spokesman Falkenberg rejected calls for German riot police to be 
armed with guns which shoot rubber bullets, which have never been used in 
Germany. Officials said there were no such guns in the state armoury.

Germany's main weapon against riots is a fleet of trucks which shoot jets of 
cold water up to 50 metres.

The police said a packet of white powder labelled "anthrax" found Monday 
near the Heiligendamm fence had only contained flour.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/867503.html


'Anarchist traveling circus' back in town

By Assaf Uni

ROSTOCK, GERMANY - The heads of the world's eight leading economies will 
convene today to begin the G8 summit in the secluded resort of Heiligendamm 
on the Baltic coast. Crucial differences of opinion on key issues and 
countless protesters who aim to disrupt the summit are expected to make this 
year's meeting particularly turbulent.

The rioting began last week, when a peaceful demonstration involving tens of 
thousands of campaigners developed into the worst street violence seen in 
Germany for years, with hundreds of activists bombarding police with stones 
and torching cars. The violent anti-G8 protest left up to 1,000 people 
injured.

The German police have been preparing meticulously for the summit, 
determined to prevent such riots from recurring. All through the port city, 
sewer lids have been welded to their frames and shop windows boarded up with 
wooden planks. Dozens of squad cars patrol the city to nip any disturbance 
of the peace in the bud.

The German hosts fear that a continuation of the protests might eclipse the 
summit itself, in which they intend to address an array of issues ranging 
from global warming through foreign aid to Africa to hedge funds and energy 
policy. These issues are problematic enough even without the hordes of 
protesters who tomorrow plan to break through the defensive perimeter that 
police have set up around the hotel where the world leaders are expected to 
meet.

The United States, for example, is adamant in its refusal commit to a 
reduction in the amount of greenhouse gases it emits. German Chancellor 
Angela Merkel, in contrast, has compiled a proposal for halving emission 
levels of greenhouse gases by the year 2050. Her initiative is supported by 
all other G8 members except the U.S., including Canada, France, Italy, 
Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom.

U.S. President George W. Bush fears that committing his country to such 
restrictions would compromise its ability to compete with rising powers such 
as China and India, which are showing very little concern for the 
environment. Instead of endorsing Merkel's plans, Bush is promoting an 
alternative course of action that includes "extensive conversation" on the 
subject.

Another source of tension is the unfolding confrontation between Russia and 
the U.S. over the latter's plans to set up a missile defense system in 
eastern Europe. The hundreds of journalists who have been pouring into the 
area over the past few days will be paying close attention to Bush's body 
language and that of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, who threatened 
to target Europe if the U.S. went ahead with its plans.

G8 members will also discuss foreign aid to Africa, against the background 
of its having broken a previous pledge to double foreign aid to this 
continent, currently the poorest on Earth. The Germans would also like to 
draft a code of ethics for hedge funds, aimed at preventing rapacious 
policies by these firms.

Meanwhile, the streets of Rostock belong to the ideologues who came to 
protest against the G8. Angry socialists roam the alleyways alongside peace 
activists, anti-nuke campaigners, environmentalists and, of course, 
black-clad anarchists. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, for whom this will 
be the last G8 summit, once described the summit as "the anarchist traveling 
circus."

Others, however, have come not to protest the G8's existence, but rather 
certain aspects of its policies. Maja Andersen from Denmark, for instance, 
works for a nongovernmental organization that promotes welfare projects in 
Third World countries. "I came to tell them that their prosperity comes at 
the expense of starving people in Africa. We need them to increase our 
funding," she said.