Anti-Globalization Protesters Block Access to G-8 (Update3)
By Patrick Donahue
June 6 (Bloomberg) -- Anti-globalization protesters blocked roads
leading to the Group of Eight summit venue in the northern German
seaside resort of Heiligendamm today, as they attempted to disrupt the
arrival of world leaders.
Demonstrators avoided roadblocks and crossed through oat fields and
forests to approach a 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) barbed- wire perimeter
fence surrounding the hotel complex, blocking access to Heiligendamm
from the press center 8 kilometers to the west at Kuehlungsborn.
Protesters said over 10,000 people gathered in the area to try and
shut down the summit.
``There's a high level of violence at the fence, lots of stone
throwing,'' police spokesman Manfred Luetjann said by telephone,
adding that ``several thousand'' protesters had reached the fence and
were within an area where demonstrations have been banned. Police
deployed tear gas and water cannon in an attempt to disperse the
protesters, he said, adding: ``Both entrances are now closed.''
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4866225.html
Thousands protest outside G-8 summit
By VANESSA GERA Associated Press Writer
(c) 2007 The Associated Press
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HINTER BOLLHAGEN, Germany — Police used water cannon to scatter
stone-throwing demonstrators Wednesday as several thousand protesters
gathered at a seven-mile fence surrounding the Group of Eight summit
meeting involving President Bush and other leaders.
An estimated 10,000 demonstrators had reached the fence by early
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 arrived on the first day of the
three-day summit.
Police said the protesters bypassed security checkpoints to reach the
fence, but they had not breached the barrier itself at any point. At
one section, hundreds of protesters chanted "Peace" and "Free G-8!
Free G-8!" while riot police wearing helmets and bearing transparent
shields massed inside.
Some police held the leashes of dogs as they watched the protesters,
which numbered more than 150 near the small town of Hinter Bollhagen,
less than two miles from the summit site.
Elsewhere, one group laid branches across a small-gauge railway used
to transport journalists to Heiligendamm from the summit center in
nearby Kuehlungsborn, while other protesters blocked two routes
leading from the airport in the city of Rostock.
Protesters who reached the fence targeted two police control points,
pelting them with stones before authorities turned water cannons on
them, police spokesman Manfred Luetjann said. He did not say if there
were any injuries or arrests.
"We wanted to prevent this from happening but now they are there and
we are handling it," Luetjann told The Associated Press by telephone.
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. Some
400 police officers were injured.
A police spokesman, Frank Scheulen, said most of the demonstrators who
had reached the fence Wednesday were peaceful, "but of course we have
to assume that there could be potentially violent protesters among
them."
"We will take all necessary measures," to ensure the security, he said.
Luetjann said that protesters had blocked two roadways from Laage
airport, where Air Force One landed the day before, and where leaders
including Russia's Vladimir Putin and Britain's Tony Blair were
expected later in the day.
"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 grass roots group called Socialist Youth Forum, told
Denmark's TV2 News channel.
___
Associated Press writers David McHugh in Kuelungsborn, Melissa Eddy in
Berlin and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this
report.
