[Onthebarricades] Germany G8 Blockades 4 - mainstream media reports part 3

[Andy]

 http://voanews.com/english/2007-06-06-voa30.cfm

Protests Increase as Informal G8 Talks Begin
By Sonja Pace
Heiligendamm, Germany
06 June 2007

Pace report -Download 1.38M
Listen to Pace report
German police used water cannons to disperse protesters around the Baltic 
Sea resort of Heiligendamm, where leaders of the G8 group of major 
industrial nations began informal discussions Wednesday ahead of their 
formal summit opening on Thursday. VOA's Sonja Pace is near the conference 
site and has this report.

Anti-globalization activists gather on meadow in Bollhagen next to G8 venue 
of Heiligendamm, 06 Jun 2007
Protest organizers spread the word of anti-G8 activities for the day - 
telling activists to fan out.
According to German police, thousands of them did just that - blocking roads 
leading from the airport in the nearby city of Rostock toward the summit 
site of Heiligendamm on the coast.
Nearly 10,000 protestors swarmed toward the 12-kilometer-long security fence 
set up by police to cordon off the summit area. Some demonstrators bombarded 
the police with stones - police responded with water cannons to drive them 
back.
Despite the protests, heads of state and government arrived throughout the 
day, holding a series of informal meetings at Heiligendamm ahead of 
Thursday's official summit opening.

President Bush greets German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, in 
Heiligendamm, Germany at start of G8 Summit, 06 Jun 2007
Summit host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, met with U.S. President George 
Bush over lunch. Afterward, Mrs. Merkel said she hoped the summit would send 
a strong signal on important commitments.
Mrs. Merkel spoke specifically about climate change and the alleviation of 
poverty in Africa as main themes at this summit.
She said she and Mr. Bush had agreed in many areas, while work remained to 
be done in others.
Mrs. Merkel has made reining in global warming a cornerstone of her 
leadership of the G8. She would like to reach agreement on benchmark caps to 
greenhouse gas emissions, which cause global warming.
Mr. Bush does not want to commit to mandatory benchmarks and instead wants 
to work toward an agreement that will be in place when the current 
international climate treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, expires in 2012.
"I . come with a strong desire to work with you on a post-Kyoto agreement 
about how we can achieve major objectives - one of course is the reduction 
of greenhouse gases, another is to become more energy independent," he said.
The United States did not sign the Kyoto Protocol, and Mr. Bush has now 
proposed his own plan to curb global warming. He wants to get the countries 
that emit the most greenhouse gases to negotiate a reduction strategy by the 
end of next year. This would include emerging economies such as India and 
China.
Mr. Bush spoke of the need to further help Africa.
"I come with a deep desire to make sure that those suffering from HIV/AIDS 
on the continent of Africa know that they'll get help from the G8," he said. 
"I come with a deep desire to work with people around the table to reduce 
malaria on the continent of Africa and feed the hungry."
While at the summit, Mr. Bush will also be meeting with Russian President 
Vladimir Putin - at a time of heightened tensions between United States and 
Russia over the U.S. proposal to build a missile defense system in Europe.

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20070606214126950


Monday, June 11 2007 @ 10:43 PM PDT



G8 protesters evade police patrols to reach security fence in Germany
Wednesday, June 06 2007 @ 09:41 PM PDT
Contributed by: Admin
Views: 309
HINTER BOLLHAGEN, Germany (AP) - A motley band of more than 800 protesters - 
some sporting fluorescent wigs and clown noses - scampered through woods and 
across fields to evade police patrols Wednesday and reach the barbed-wire 
fence sealing off the Group of Eight summit.

G8 protesters evade police patrols to reach security fence in Germany

VANESSA GERA AND DAVID RISING
Wednesday, June 06, 2007

HINTER BOLLHAGEN, Germany (AP) - A motley band of more than 800 protesters - 
some sporting fluorescent wigs and clown noses - scampered through woods and 
across fields to evade police patrols Wednesday and reach the barbed-wire 
fence sealing off the Group of Eight summit.

Protest organizers claimed victory for getting as far as the barrier, 
despite being doused by water cannons, struck with tear gas and tackled as 
they blocked several roads - including the route from the airport as world 
leaders flew in for the summit.

"We have successfully taken over all roads leading to Heiligendamm," said 
Christoph Kleine of the Block G8 group. "We are very happy with that."

About 150 members of a group calling themselves the Clandestine Insurgent 
Rebel Clown Army - dressed in wigs, clown makeup and noses, and occasionally 
in drag - blocked one of two road entrances to the summit site for several 
hours near the town of Hinter Bollhagen, about three kilometres away.

Dozens of police officers in riot gear moved the protesters out of the way, 
then marched them kilometres along a dirt road back to Kuhlungsborn. The 
protesters playfully waved at helicopters shuttling dignitaries into the 
summit site.

"The Clown Army - we kicked!" said one of the group's leaders, a Welshman 
carrying a frilly white umbrella who identified himself only as "Sgt. 
Sideshow Bob."

The demonstration began with some 3,000 protesters setting out from an 
encampment on a winding march of several hours, during which they scattered 
to evade police. By late afternoon, some 800 of them had reached the fence, 
while 10,000 had gathered at other areas where demonstrations had been 
banned, police said.

At one section of the fence, protesters chanted "Peace" and "Free G8! Free 
G8!" while riot police with helmets and transparent shields massed inside. 
Some then pelted police with stones before authorities turned the water 
cannons on them, police spokesman Manfred Luetjann said.

"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."

More than 150 people were detained, and at least eight police officers 
suffered minor injuries, according to police.

Elsewhere, protesters threw tree limbs on the rails of a steam train used to 
ferry reporters between the summit site and a media centre in Kuhlungsborn, 
shutting it down for much of the day.

In the waters off Heiligendamm, police searched a Greenpeace ship outside 
the security zone, putting several rubber boats out of use and confiscating 
a hot-air balloon.

The protests were significantly milder than Saturday's rally in nearby 
Rostock, when hundreds of radicals with black hoods and bandanas covering 
their faces charged police hurling stones and bottles. Some 400 officers 
were hurt.

Germany is spending US$124 million on the three-day summit that opened 
Wednesday night, and has deployed 16,000 police officers, armoured personnel 
carriers, helicopters, trucks topped with water cannons and other support 
vehicles.


© The Canadian Press, 2007



http://en.rian.ru/world/20070606/66805739.html


Police clears German summit rail line, warns of provocations
21:44|06/ 06/ 2007



HEILIGENDAMM (Germany), June 6 (RIA Novosti) - Police succeeded in clearing 
the railway line leading to the main venue of the G8 summit and warned 
protesters not to engage in any further acts of provocation.
Protesters of the Group of Eight industrialized nations summit in 
Heiligendamm blocked the small-gauge railroad, the only way to get from the 
media center in the neighboring town of Kuehlungsborn, where all security 
checks are carried out, for about four hours. During that time, journalists 
had to be ferried to the summit venue by boat.
A police spokesperson said about 8,000 people took part in the sit-in on the 
railway until being dispersed by police.
Riot police warned demonstrators that provocations were possible, and asked 
them to avoid being drawn in.
Young people clad in black threw stones at riot police, who found it 
difficult to separate them from peaceful protesters. As a result, both 
checkpoints into the summit security zone were blocked off, and 
indiscriminate riot control methods were employed.
The main road from the Rostock Airport and other roads toward Heiligendamm 
were blocked since earlier today by rows of people engaged in a sit-down 
protest, as well as barricades.

http://www.eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=9381


Wednesday, June 06, 2007 at 20:58
Subject: /G8-Demos/Germany/

2ND ROUNDUP: Protesters block gates at G8 summit
Eds: multiple epa photos available

Heiligendamm, Germany (dpa) - Thousands of anti-globalization protesters 
blocked several access routes to the G8 summit site in Germany for much of 
Wednesday.

Riot police stood tensely on guard for most of the day, keeping the gaily 
dressed protesters from pressing up to a 2.5-metre-high, welded-mesh, steel 
fence topped with razor wire surrounding the Heiligendamm summit hotel.

In the evening, police began clearing the roads, manhandling away sitting 
protesters, hosing down larger groups with cold water from police trucks and 
drawing up lines of riot officers wielding plastic clubs and shields.

In a day of manoeuvring and outflanking, protesters ran across fields to 
evade police road-blocks and defy a court ban on protests near the fence, 
erected in a two-kilometre radius from the palaces and grand hotel at 
Heiligendamm.

A main gate, emergency-access routes and a steam railway for tourists were 
blocked, but one main access route remained open all day, so the blockade 
was not complete, reporters said.

Under a soft policing policy named "de-escalation," there were only isolated 
clashes and riot police ignored the fact that the protest was illegal under 
a ruling the same day from Germany's Constitutional Court.

The court confirmed a ban on protest in a zone extending more than 6 
kilometres from the summit hotel.

Exultant demonstrators voiced surprise that the police had not stopped them. 
Organizers said they had fielded 10,000 protesters in the countryside near 
Heiligendamm to disrupt the summit, while police counted 8,000.

"We just walked over the fields where the water-cannon couldn't follow us," 
said a spokeswoman for the protest group Block G8, which regards the summit 
as illegitimate.

The eight summit leaders were able to fly by helicopter over the protesters' 
heads from a nearby airport into the exclusive Heiligendamm beach resort and 
later to a country estate, Gut Hohen Luckow 20 kilometres away, for dinner.

At key points such as main highways, police used water cannon and tear gas 
to clear away protesters. The various clashes caused injuries such as cuts, 
bruises and sprains.

A police spokesman denied the 16,000-strong special summit police force, 
which had met frequently beforehand with protest organizers, had been taken 
by surprise.

The protesters from round the globe were mainly in their 20s, many wearing 
colourful casual dress or humourous costumes, but with a few wearing the 
hoods and the black clothes that mark out "Black Block" militants.

Two Spanish men aged 20 and 21 were meanwhile sent to jail at a summary 
trial for their part in an anti-G8 riot four days earlier in the port city 
of Rostock.

The younger man was given nine months for throwing stones at police and the 
elder ten months because one of the stones actually hit an officer.

However, they were bailed after defence lawyers said they would appeal 
against the convictions.

The previous day, the first rioter to be convicted, a 32-year-old German, 
received 10 months on similar charges.

An estimated 2,000 black-clad protesters had fought with riot police on 
Saturday.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/news/tm_headline=three-hurt-as-police-ram-protest-boats--&method=full&objectid=19263830&siteid=66633-name_page.html


8 June 2007
THREE HURT AS POLICE RAM PROTEST BOATS
GREENPEACE boats smashed through a coastal blockade of the G8 summit 
yesterday.
Three protesters were hurt when a police launch rammed two of the 
environmental group's inflatables and pitched crews into the sea.
The Greenpeace vessels were well within the five-mile no-go zone before 
police boats raced into action.
There was a dramatic 10-minute chase before the Greenpeace boats were 
rammed.
A total of 11 inflatables were then pushed out to sea and 25 people were 
arrested.
On land, thousands of demonstrators camped out within less than half-a-mile 
of a security fence in the so-called "forbidden zone."
Police reinforcements were bussed in, bringing the number of officers on the 
front line to 17,000.
Demonstrators blocked many roads leading into Heiligendamm. At one junction, 
they painted out the town's name on a roadsign and replaced it with Evil 
Empire.
Police cleared one road into Heiligendamm with water cannon and tear gas. 
There were several arrests on top of the 160 people held after Wednesday's 
running skirmishes.
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/features/article_1314686.php/Clowns_and_power-boats_skirmish_with_police
Europe Features
Clowns and power-boats skirmish with police

The composite TV grabs show how a police boat pushes away a Greenpeace 
rubber dinghy after entering the restricted area offhsore Kuehlungsborn, 
Germany, 0 7 June 2007. According to Greenpeace eleven rubber dinghys had 
tried to enter the zone rest restricted for the public during the G8 summit 
in Heiliegendamm. Until the 08 June 2007 the G8 summit will take place under 
intense security measures in Heiligendamm. EPA/POOL

Jun 7, 2007, 13:38 GMT
Berlin - Inflatable power-boats occupied by protesters weaved and dodged on 
the green waters of the Baltic Sea, chased by police boats trying to keep 
them off the world's best-protected beach Thursday.
The steersmen on both sides were masters of seaborne skirmishes.
Greenpeace spokesman Bjoern Jettka said the protest group had a corps of 
crack boatmen, some with experience playing cat-and-mouse with whaling ships 
in icy polar seas.
German police were waiting with an elite boat squad in nimble rigid 
inflatable dinghies of their own and a superb, 90-kilometre- per-hour launch 
borrowed from Sweden that could turn in its own length.
Although Greenpeace had penetrated a marine exclusion zone near the G8 
summit hotel, German naval units far out on the Baltic capable of blowing 
terrorists out of the water stayed out of the chase.
The only rule in the 10-minute skirmish, followed by TV cameras in the air: 
no killing, no deliberate wounding.
Eight of the world's top leaders, discussing world problems indoors, were 
probably unaware of the action-movie-style chase with its shunts, slithers 
and narrow escapes.
One of the protest boats was fouled when a swerving police dinghy overshot 
it. Three protesters were hurt, but all participants were fished out of the 
water and taken to safety.
At this week's G8 summit, groups critical of globalization and western 
policy have sought media attention by deft use of colour and novel protest 
methods.
On land, many of the protesters donned clown costumes or funny face paint 
and other fancy dress, creating the impression of a street carnival as they 
swarmed in the summer sunshine through fields and woods to the G8 venue.
Protest leaders had scouted footpaths and gaps in the verdant coastal woods 
months in advance and trained their 'troops' in the 'five-finger' method of 
evading police.
At each obstruction, each protester knew which of five columns they had to 
split into when running past police.
Police, sweating inside padded protective clothing and white 
motorcycle-style helmets, formed human chains to protect a steel mesh fence 
erected 2 kilometres away from the Kempinski Grand Hotel.
The demonstrators spanned a wide range of political views, from liberals and 
pacifists to hardline communists and anarchists who seek the downfall of all 
governments.
Police warned that the clowns were similarly diverse. Not all were the 
friendly figures they seemed.
Whereas some clowns were acting as crowd marshals, helping to ease tension 
and prevent scuffles, others have teased tired police or squirted acid at 
them with water pistols. Police are not sure what the substance was.
'The clowns army is part of a trend to make demonstrations more colourful,' 
said Manfred Murck, deputy head of a Hamburg state intelligence agency that 
monitors subversives.
Anarchopedia, a German-language guide for anarchists, says clowns aim to 
parody police and attract TV attention.
'If being arrested, they should act very theatrically. What could be better 
for us than to get pictures in the media of police arresting clowns?' the 
website says.
TV pictures have also shown protesters effectively switching identities, 
changing in a flash from casual beachwear into the black hoods of the 
radical Black Block which has fought the police with stones and clubs.
After months of rehearsals by both police and protesters and two days of 
theatricality at the fence, it remained uncertain in the middle of the 
clashes who had the upper hand.
Protesters have been exultant that have evaded police checkpoints, reached 
the fence and blocked roads, defying a government ban on protests close to 
the summit.
Police insist they are following a sophisticated 'de-escalation' strategy, 
based on appeasing demonstrators in small ways while toughening up if 
protesters turn violent or touch the fence.
The police can precisely vary their response between fixed resolve and 
tolerance,' said Rainer Wendt, head of a German police union. Government 
politicians said police had fumbled a few incidents but were in overall 
control.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/06/06/18425401.php


G8 Protest: More than 10,000 block Heiligendamm
by de.indymedia.org
Wednesday Jun 6th, 2007 6:27 PM
As hundreds of G8 delegates arrived in the area today, mass blockades 
seriously interrupted their arrival in the fenced security zone. Thousands 
of activists blocked all routes leading to the G8 meeting venue. Over 10,000 
people blocked the fence gates and breached the newly declared zone around 
the fence in which all demonstrations had been declared illegal. In the 
evening, police violently dispersed one of the blockades, while others were 
continuing, with several thousand people still on the streets. Other 
activists were protesting in the streets at the Laage airport.
In the late evening, more than 1000 people prepare to stay overnight in 
three blockades.
Thousands of people marched through the fields and forests before splitting 
into several different coloured blocks to take the main SE road to the G8 
security fence.

This was one of several blockades which seem to have shut down all roads to 
the G8.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/06/372723.html

Thousands of people left Reddelich camp early this morning to take part in 
the first day of blockades against the G8 summit. The main group which 
consisted of well over 5000 people moved towards the fence through fields 
and country roads. Other smaller affinity groups also left towards the fence 
'protecting' Heiligendamm. Here there are a few photos of the main blockade 
which managed to break well inside the designated 'no-protest' zone, and 
successfully occupied the main road leading to Heiligendamm from the town of 
Bad Doberan, and just a few hundred meters away from the fence that protects 
the so-called 'red zone'.

At the time of publishing this report the blockade is still on, and growing 
in numbers as protesters from an earlier blockade of a military airport 
nearby are joining in. Police are bringing in water cannons and small tanks, 
but the protestors are staying put and resisting the blockade, some of which 
planning to stay overnight.

Here there are a few pics of the blockade so far ....

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/06/372740.html


Medecins Sans Frontieres provided a visual spectacle to highlight the 
scandal of people dying in poor countries due to the price of life saving 
drugs. Credit to MSF's volunteers the water was filthy not to mention 
freezing.

>From the MSF press release:

People across the developing world continue to die because they do not have 
access to life saving tmedecines. Existing treatments are are too expensive 
due to patent protection and needed are not being developed, as people in 
developing countries do not represnt a lucrative market.. Every day, MSF 
doctors struggle to provide treatment to patients suffering from infectious 
diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS leishmaniasis and sleeping 
sickness.

G8 leaders have singled out innovation and Africa as two of the Priorities 
for the summit in Heiligendamm, and hold up intellectual property protection 
as the way to foster innovation. But todays system of patent protection and 
high drug prices as the way to finance innovation leaves the needs of 
millions of people across the developing world unmet.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/06/372753.html


http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/17338217.htm


Posted on Thu, Jun. 07, 2007
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THE SCENE AT THE G-8
At summit, protesters improvise to get message across
By Matthew Schofield
McClatchy Newspapers

Claudia Himmelreich/MCT
Security guards keeping a close eye on protesters dressed clowns are trying 
to pass a fence separating the Kuehlungsborn public beach from the 
restricted area
KUEHLUNGSBORN, Germany - If the game was cat and mouse, the mice won.
The protesters at the summit of leaders of eight major industrial countries 
failed to disrupt the meeting at a Baltic resort near this north German 
town, but they were able to breach the restricted sea area set up by police.
Greenpeace activists and trained speedboat drivers managed to penetrate the 
Baltic security cordon in a series of high-speed chases. Their stated intent 
was to deliver a climate change petition to the G-8 leaders. The boats never 
made it to shore, but activists did unfurl "G-8 Act Now" banners near the 
exclusive resort where the leaders met.
The challenge on land was a lot tougher - a six-mile-wide "protester-free" 
zone that surrounded a 7.5-mile-long security fence. A German court ruled 
that the one protest allowed near the fence had to be 220 yards from it - so 
getting inside the zone, and perhaps even reaching the fence, became the 
goals of the protest.
Protesters sneaked through fields and forests, dodging police searching for 
them. Many slept on country roads to block access. They also marched down 
the roads at police lines, only to break in five groups just before making 
contact and confuse police efforts to corral them.
Protesters - who were objecting to globalization, the failure to curb global 
warming and the secrecy surrounding the summit talks - dressed like clowns, 
angels or ninja and danced before police, who for the most part were very 
patient. The protesters claimed success at least in receiving media 
attention.
"This was one of the most spectacular protests in the history of Germany," 
Tim Laymeyer, spokesman for the Block G-8 Alliance, said Thursday night. "It 
was a full success. We are very happy. We blocked all access roads into 
Heiligendamm. We really made a difference."
Not that President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the other 
world leaders would have noticed. They arrived not by car but by helicopter.
The protest seemed to conclude on a far quieter note than it opened last 
weekend, when almost 500 police and more than 500 protesters were injured 
during running, rock-throwing battles in the streets of nearby Rostock.
In fact, organizers said the estimated 14,000 protesters, compared to an 
estimated 16,000 police, were breaking up Thursday night and heading into 
nearby Rostock early Friday. They said many folks had drifted into Rostock 
Thursday night for a concert featuring Bono, Bob Geldof and Die Toten Hosen 
(in English, the Dead Pants). Others, they said, were planning to attend a 
closing protest rally Friday, also in Rostock.
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=nation_world&id=5375604

Protestors Foiled at G8 Summit
 By DAVID RISING and VANESSA GERA Associated Press Writers
HINTER BOLLHAGEN, Germany (AP) - June 7, 2007 - By land and sea - and even 
stark naked - protesters mounted a concerted effort to break through the 
police cordon around the Group of Eight summit Thursday, with officers on 
horseback chasing some away from a security fence and police boats ramming 
others on the Baltic Sea.



Some protesters blocked roads, while riot police skirmished with a large 
group near the main entrance gate along the seven-mile security fence 
sealing off the summit, firing repeated blasts from four water cannons.
One makeshift barricade of logs was quickly cleared from the road in front 
of the entrance, while protesters blocking the road nearby used tarps to 
shield themselves from the water before police dragged them away.
Later, a line of an about 200 riot police stood between nearly 2,000 
protesters and the razor wire-topped fence. Demonstrators ignored warnings 
to move back, instead taunting police until they blasted them with water 
cannons atop four trucks.
Police drove them back with repeated blasts of water and charges into the 
crowd, only to have them immediately return to their places nose-to-nose 
with the officers, chanting "We're peaceful, what are you?"
Authorities had a hard time stopping protesters from streaming across 
rolling farmland toward the fence, and helicopters ferried in dozens of 
police reinforcements. However, police said the fence was never breached and 
they arrested 137 people.
On the Baltic Sea, 24 activists from the Greenpeace environmental 
organization - with banners reading "G-8, Act Now" - led police on a boat 
chase. One of the police boats ran over an inflatable Greenpeace vessel, 
spilling the activists into the water. The group said they suffered bruises 
and one was hospitalized for observation.
Other protesters chose less confrontational ways to voice their displeasure 
with the summit - stripping off their clothing and strolling down a key 
road. Fourteen men and women wore nothing except slogans written on their 
backs that read "Naked without violence!"
They walked for less than five minutes before police surrounded and escorted 
them back to their departure point, where they put their clothes on.
One protester, Jule, a 25-year-old woman from Berlin, wore only sunglasses 
with her bright pink dreadlocks pulled into a pony tail. She said the aim of 
the march was to counter the media's fixation on violence among the 
demonstrators.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hosting the leaders of the United States, 
France, Britain, Russia, Italy, Canada and Japan for a meeting focusing on 
climate change and aid to Africa. The summits draw protesters every year.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

http://www.eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=9414


Thursday, June 07, 2007 at 11:41
Subject: /G8-Demos/Germany/

1ST LEAD: Protesters in boats at G8, crowds at fence

Heiligendamm, Germany (dpa) - Greenpeace protesters in inflatable boats 
forced their way into a marine exclusion zone near the G8 summit at 
Heiligendamm in Germany on Thursday.

Police or naval vessels gave chase and shunted both boats away. Greenpeace 
said it had been planning to land on the beach outside the luxury hotel and 
hand a petition to western leaders demanding action on climate change.

TV news pictures showed one protest boat was capsized in the chase. The 
previous day, police had confiscated motor parts for the inflatables on the 
Greenpeace mother ship in a vain effort to nip the protest in the bud.

On land, police allowed protesters to assemble peacefully for a second day 
at a fence two kilometres from the G8 summit venue.

German authorities have legally prohibited protests in the area, but police 
have been pragmatic, insisting only that protesters do not touch the fence. 
Riot police have manhandled protesters away from essential roads only.

On Wednesday, 9,000 protesters objecting to the three-day meeting of western 
leaders had swarmed through fields to the fence.

At one gate to the Heiligendamm summit compound, about 1,000 protesters 
spent the night in sleeping bags, and at another access way to the east, 500 
slept on the ground. Protesters hauled in food and portable toilets for 
them.

German police, who have 16,000 personnel at the summit, have called up 
reinforcements. Police unions said 200 riot police from Hamburg and 230 from 
Saxony-Anhalt state had been drafted to Heiligendamm to help with crowd 
control.

German police are under legal restrictions, and cannot use firearms against 
protesters on land or at sea.

On land they have have manhandled sitting protesters or hosed down larger 
groups with cold water from police trucks. Lines of riot police have used 
plastic clubs and shields to threaten the protesters.


http://english.pravda.ru/world/europe/06-06-2007/92890-G8_summit-0

Violent protests meet Bush at G8 summit
Front page / World / Europe
06.06.2007Source:

The G8 summit begins in Germany today and security is tight around the 
Baltic resort town of Heiligendamm. G8 leaders will discuss foreign policy 
issues including Iran's nuclear programme, Middle East peace, Sudan and 
Kosovo.


Violent protests meet Bush at G8 summit

The German hosts are also aiming to secure new G8 pledges on development aid 
and Aids funding for Africa.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators are expected to rally 
in Rostock throughout this week against the policies of the G8 
industrialised nations.
Protesters have filed an appeal against measures to bar them from getting 
close to the G8 venue, which is surrounded by a 12km steel and concrete 
fence topped with barbed wire. Yesterday, about 400 protesters with anti-G8 
signs tried to block one of the road exits from Rostock airport shortly 
before George W. Bush, the US president, landed.
The meeting of leaders from Britain, Germany, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, 
Russia and the United States ends on Friday, sabcnews.com reports.
President George W. Bush will be met by anti-globalization protesters today 
when he flies in to Germany's northern port city of Rostock for the June 6-8 
Group of Eight summit in nearby Heiligendamm.
Protesters plan to gather at 5 p.m. local time at Weitendorf, outside 
Rostock-Laage airport, to decry Bush's military policy, organizers said in 
an e-mailed release today. Bush arrives less than 24 hours after police in 
Rostock arrested 66 rioting demonstrators.
"Our presence will show the U.S. president that he's not welcome here,'' 
protest organizer Hans-Peter Kartenberg said in the release.
The group said it plans to blockade the airport tomorrow as other leaders 
arrive. In Heiligendamm, which has been sealed off by a 12 kilometer-long 
(7.5 mile) barbed-wire fence, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host 
world leaders including Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin, British 
Prime Minister Tony Blair and the new French leader, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Their point of arrival at Rostock airport is used to train Eurofighter jet 
pilots and so is linked to war policy, according to Kartenberg. "The wars of 
the G-8 states are being prepared at Rostock-Laage airport," he said in the 
statement, Bloomberg reports.

The German government has spared no expense -- spending upward of $100 
million -- to safeguard this week's summit, which brings together leaders of 
the industrial countries known as the Group of Eight. German authorities 
have taken an offensive-minded approach, using a variety of tactics that 
critics say conjure bad memories of the country's totalitarian past.
For instance, police and prosecutors have surreptitiously acquired scent 
samples of some protest organizers to make it easier for police dogs to 
locate them in a crowd, authorities have acknowledged. The technique was 
pioneered by the Stasi, the East German secret police.
In the days leading up to the summit, some German officials called for 
preemptive arrests of G-8 opponents in case they were planning to cause 
trouble. Although the government backed away from that approach, it has 
taken a hard line against allowing public demonstrations within a four-mile 
radius of the summit's location.
German authorities have defended the aggressive stance as necessary to avoid 
chaos, as well as national embarrassment. They pointed out that more than 
500 police officers were reported injured in clashes with anti-globalization 
demonstrators over the weekend in the nearby port city of Rostock. A nearly 
equal number of protesters were also reportedly hurt. Each side blamed the 
other for starting the fights, The Washington Post reports.
Source: agencies
Prepared by Alexander Timoshik
Pravda.ru