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 |  Subject: Anti-Davos forum protest turns violent in Geneva  Sun Feb 01, 2009 7:43 am | |
| GENEVA (AP) — Riot police fired tear gas and water cannons at bottle-throwing leftist demonstrators in Geneva who protested Saturday against the annual World Economic Forum meeting in the Swiss Alps.
Police chased black-clad protesters through the narrow streets of what is known as the "city of peace," as Saturday shoppers took refuge in bars and cafes. An Associated Press reporter on the scene saw a few minor injuries.
The protest of hundreds of people was largely peaceful until police blocked a group from walking to the center of the city. Some in the crowd threw bottles, and police responded with tear gas.
The violence was a long way from the target of the protesters' anger, the World Economic Forum in Davos, a five-hour train ride from Geneva. The forum is an annual gathering of the world's business and political elite.
Police spokesman Philippe Cosandey estimated there were 350 to 400 people in the crowd. He said there have been 16 arrests, though dozens more were briefly detained.
Geneva authorities had denied the anti-capitalist crowd a permit to hold their demonstration, but they decided to stage it anyway.
A broad coalition of leftists from trade unions and anarchists — known as the Black Bloc because of their attire and masked faces — organized the demonstration.
The protest began peacefully with a rally in front of the city's imposing 19th-century post office. Speakers railed against government bailouts for banks and other symbols of global capitalism.
"They are refilling their accounts with the people's money," said Florence Proton of the anti-globalization group Attac.
Alessandro Pelizzari, regional secretary of the trade union Unia, said ordinary workers deserved government handouts, too.
"100,000 lost their jobs in Europe this week," he said. "And those responsible are in Davos."
Demonstrators expressed anger that their protest had been banned, and warned that this would give a minority the excuse to attack police.
Violence erupted when a small group of protesters pealed off from the rally and tried to break through police lines.
Shoppers in the town center quickly cleared out of the area, some taking refuge in bars and cafes.
By mid-afternoon the air was heavy with tear gas, and police attempted to clear the streets with water cannons as the temperature hovered around freezing.
Police temporarily detained 130 people and made 16 formal arrests, spokesman Cosandey said.
"Like any demonstration there were some who came just to fight," he said.
Police remained on alert as night fell, and small groups of protesters wandered the streets.
In Davos itself, a small group of leftist protesters tossed snowballs at riot police Saturday. Swiss police say about 120 protesters marched through the icy and heavily policed streets of the resort town.
The group included representatives of Amnesty International, the Young Socialist party and the Green Party. A Green Party leader, Josef Lang, says the forum's participants cannot provide solutions to the crisis because they are part of the problem.
Some 2,500 business and political leaders attended this week's Davos meeting, which was dominated by concerns about the financial crisis.
Violent protests are rare in Geneva, but have occurred in the past decade by opponents to globalization. The last major clashes occurred during the June 2003 meeting of G8 leaders in nearby Evian, France.
At that time the protesters broke windows, set fires and looted during the three days of the talks. Estimates of damage to banks and shops ran into several million dollars. Riot police responded with water cannon, tear gas and rubber pellets.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2009-01-31-davos_N.htm?csp=34 |
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