EU protests turn violent

2003-10-04 19:16

Rome - Italian riot police fired tear gas and wielded batons on Saturday to break up a protest by anti-globalisation demonstrators outside a summit in Rome where European leaders were mulling a new EU constitution.

As helicopters buzzed overhead, hundreds of officers fought a running battle with protestors along a broad avenue within 300m of the summit venue on the outskirts of Rome, a correspondent on the scene said.

At least one person was injured and 24 arrested as demonstrators smashed shop windows, even before the main rally began outside the high-security venue in Rome's fascist-era EUR district

Organisers claimed over 300 000 demonstrators participated in two separate rallies, including 250 000 in Rome and at least 70 000 near the summit venue, but police said the Rome march only attracted 15 000 people.

As darkness approached some protesters, wearing hoods and masks and armed with sticks, forced a line of police to crouch under a hail of stones and missiles. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

No-go

About 10 000 riot-ready police officers were on the streets of Rome enforcing a no-go zone around the venue. Fighter jets roared overhead, accompanied by surveillance aircraft and helicopters.

European trade unions, using slogans including "Liberal Europe too concerned about businessmen," and the anti-globalisation movement had called a joint demonstration demanding "another Europe".

They want the EU to do more to address average citizens' concerns as the 15-member bloc expands to include 10 new mainly ex-communist countries in May 2004.

"We will never build a stronger Europe on a weaker social pillar. It must attract popular enthusiasm and be firmly rooted in popular politics," the secretary general of the European Trade Union Confederation, John Monks said.

"We want to send a message to Europe's political leaders that they will weaken the social dimension of Europe at their and Europe's peril," he added.

At one point group of about 50 anti-globalisation protesters attacked the offices of a temporary work agency before being chased away by police and an ambulance was seen moving in to take away an injured demonstrator.

Hooded demonstrators

In one clash with police three demonstrators were injured. A group of hooded demonstrators also attacked a bank near the summit conference centre, damaging the building's reinforced glass windows.

Protestors, most of them Italians, arrived on specially-booked trains in the morning and had an initial non-violent standoff with authorities guarding the seat of the Italian government, the Palazzo Chigi.

Authorities were bracing for the type of violent demonstrations that rocked a summit of the Group of Eight industrialised nations in July 2001 in the northern Italian city of Genoa in which one young protestor was shot dead by olice.

Letter bomb

The clashes and vandalism came two days after a letter bomb ripped through the Italian labour ministry in central Rome. The explosive caused no injuries, but rattled nerves on the eve of a meeting of EU defence ministers and the ensuing summit.

No one has claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack, but Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu accused far-left militants from the Red Brigades group of being behind it.

Two labour ministry officials, Massimo D'Antona and Marco Biagi, were gunned down in 1999 and 2002 by the Red Brigades.

- AFP