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BBC (with additional material by Reuters). 15 March 2002. Clashes break out at EU summit. BARCELONA -- Riot police have used batons to break up crowds of protesters staging anti-globalisation protests in the Spanish city of Barcelona, where European Union leaders are holding a two-day summit. About 1,000 young protesters gathered in Las Ramblas, the main boulevard in the city centre, to taunt police and throw stones. Police responded by hitting protesters with batons, but the BBC's James Coomarasamy, reporting from Barcelona, says the skirmishes so far have been localised and relatively small scale. More than 8,000 police officers, backed by military aircraft and naval vessels, have been deployed to keep the peace in the city. Our correspondent says the violence so far has been short-lived and restricted to cursory charges up and down the street. But he said some police had fired rubber bullets when the protests reached their peak, and a number of protesters had been arrested. "The police started it," said one protester, Ruben Bayona. "I'm not saying they weren't provoked, but it takes very little to provoke them." Local shop keepers were taking no chances, with most keeping their shutters firmly closed. The protests have been taking place several kilometres away from the heavily guarded compound at the Palacio de Congresos on the city's outskirts, where the summit is taking place. And the security surrounding their meeting is so tight that the authorities are confident there will no breaches of the protective ring. Reuters correspondents at the scene saw baton-wielding officers move in with the considerable force that is a trademark of the Spanish riot police to break up a crowd of young protesters gathering around the city's Liceu opera house on the historic Ramblas avenue, near the harbor. Local police said they had arrested 10 people for "damaging street furniture" but gave no further details. With black police vans lining the street, scuffles began between police and activists. Bottles and cafe chairs were thrown. As shopkeepers rapidly closed their shutters, hundreds of people fled down narrow side streets. "They don't have the right to do this," one angry young man, who gave his name only as Jaume, said after the police moved in. Some of those fleeing shouted "Carlo vive!" (Carlo lives!), in homage to Carlo Giuliani, a protester shot dead by police during riots at an international summit in Genoa last July. Torsten Geuder, a German businessman staying at a hotel on a side street, said two windows had been broken in the lobby. "There were many masked people running down the street. We were sitting here having lunch and then we heard sounds like shots and broken glass. They were running destroying anything they could find," Geuder said. Several of the young demonstrators wore black handkerchiefs over their faces. One hurled a metal drain cover at the window of a local bank, others threw plant pots and chairs at police. Some protesters, from groups including some from Britain and France, were dragged away by police officers as others set fire to garbage cans, leaving a cloud of smoke hanging over parts of the historic old town. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews with photo attachments of the demo --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
