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Peace at any cost is a prelude to war!
Protesters, Police Clash in Seattle
By Luis Cabrera
Associated Press Writers
Tuesday, Nov. 30, 1999; 6:33 p.m. EST
SEATTLE –– Promises of nonviolent protest against World Trade Organization
talks were shattered – along with storefront windows – as 5,000
demonstrators clashed with police seeking to clear the way for delegates to
get into the conference.
Tensions escalated after police used pepper spray Tuesday to disperse crowds
that had stalled the meeting's opening ceremonies. In one place,
demonstrators turned against each another.
Angry renegades smashed downtown windows at a McDonald's, an FAO Schwartz toy
store, a Joan and David shoe store and U.S.Bank. "Barbie Kills" was sprayed
on a toy-store window full of Barbie dolls.
Activists upended garbage bins in the streets to serve as blockades and
barricades. Some vandalized police vehicles, methodically slashing tires,
kicking in doors and scrawling graffiti after the morning clash delayed the
conference's opening ceremonies at the Paramount Theater.
Demonstrators driven from the site by clouds of red-pepper spray were tended
by their own medics, who carried bottles of water to clear swollen eyes and
breathing passages.
"They sprayed me right in the face. We were just sitting there chanting to
the delegates, and they sprayed us with tear gas," said Tom Wilson, 54, of
Viroqua, Wis., who spoke with his eyes closed, grimacing in pain, as he was
treated on the street.
Black-garbed young men in ski masks were behind some of the vandalism and got
in shouting matches with more peacefully inclined protesters during a midday
lull in the action.
At least one person was arrested for assault during the morning clash outside
the WTO meeting rooms.
"We know there have been more (arrests) made, we just don't have the
numbers," said police command center spokeswoman Marti McKee, with the
federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Officers, trying to clear a path for delegates moving between WTO venues,
warned crowds blocking intersections that they would be cleared using
"chemical irritants" – red-pepper, or oleoresin capsicum, delivered by spray
canisters and pellets fired from rifle-like devices.
Rumors that police were using rubber bullets outraged some demonstrators, but
officers say the reports referred to the inch-wide spherical plastic pellets
containing OC gas.
"What they wanted to do was to open a pathway so delegates could move from
one venue to another," McKee said. "Delegates were being surrounded. ...
Protesters were asked to move repeatedly, and they did not."
Mayor Paul Schell said using gas was "the last thing I wanted to have to do."
"I think it's something some of the protesters wanted us to do," he said,
though he added that the vast majority were "respecting their pledge to be
peaceful."
Demonstrations were organized to protest WTO authority to override national
laws that are considered an impediment to trade, which organizers said
threatens U.S. environmental law.
Mohammed Asfour, Jordanian minister of industry and trade, said he had been
able to do nothing all day. Jordan is scheduled to be accepted into the WTO
at the Seattle meeting.
"People like us who came from thousands of miles," Asfour said, "and to find
no organization – it's very sad."
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