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Protesters breach security at G8 { July 6 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/8219be7e-ee49-11d9-98e5-00000e2511c8.htmlhttp://news.ft.com/cms/s/8219be7e-ee49-11d9-98e5-00000e2511c8.html
Protesters breach security at G8 venue
By Andrew Bolger in Edinburgh, Michael Peel on the march and Fiona Harvey at Gleneagles
Published: July 6 2005 19:27 | Last updated: July 6 2005 19:27
Hundreds of anti-poverty protesters were driven back from the Gleneagles estate by riot police with dogs late on Wednesday after they breached the 6ft-high steel security fence that surrounds the G8 summit venue.
About 300 protesters had broken away from a 3,500-strong crowd of protesters marching through the nearby village of Auchterarder. They crossed a field and briefly breached the so-called ¡§ring of steel¡¨, pulling down a 20ft section and throwing rocks at officers who had been flown in by a Chinook helicopter.
The subsequent arrests brought to 100 the number of people arrested in the Tayside area, and 60 in Stirling. Twenty police officers were injured during earlier clashes in nearby Stirling.
Police reacted to the violence in Stirling by scaling back the march only hours before it was scheduled to begin, allowing only those who had already gathered at Auchterarder and those trapped on coaches by the demonstrator's blocking of roads to participate. At least 5,000 protesters had been expected to take part.
The Make Poverty History campaign, which brought out 225,000 people onto the streets of Edinburgh at the weekend for a peaceful march, was critical of the violent protesters, saying: ¡§There are hundreds of thousands of people involved in lobbying the G8. Unfortunately some groups have become involved in levels of violence that we don't support, but we do understand their frustration.¡¨
But Benedict Southworth, head of campaigns at the World Development Movement, which campaigns for justice for the poor, said that while he did not condone violence, legitimate protesters were being denied the ability to make their voices heard.
¡§People are finding it very difficult to make a legitimate protest. Our supporters have been trying to protest but police interventions have not allowed them to.¡¨
He said protesters had been ¡§suppressed and corralled¡¨ by police and raised the spectre of the protests at the G8 meeting in Genoa in 2001 in which he said heavy handed policing had led to the death of a protester. ¡§I hope everyone on both sides will resist violence,¡¨ he said.
Meanwhile, it emerged on Wednesday that there is a strong international element to some of the violent protests. While most of the anti-capitalist protesters who appeared in court this week following clashes with police in Edinburgh were British, more than half of the 20 people charged with forming a mob were from overseas mainly Germany and France, but also Italy and Denmark.
Police refused to identify the groups involved, but many of those in the thick of Monday's clashes with police were dressed completely in black, the garb favoured by members of the anarchist Black Bloc. The bloc was prominent in the anti-World Trade Organisation protest in Seattle in 1999 and at the violent G8 summit in Genoa in 2001.
The march had started off peacefully, with rock star Bono telling the crowd to have faith in the political process: ¡§Out on the streets people are very angry, making their case. . . we must not let people down.¡¨
Groups such as the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army are employing peaceful methods of protest its members dress as clowns, paint their faces and use custard pies and tickling sticks to harass police lines. The group has promised to ¡§help the security forces keep the G8 under indefinite house arrest¡¨ at Gleneagles.
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