STATEWATCH press release, 2 October 2001
PROPOSAL TO CREATE EU PARA-MILITARY POLICE UNITS TO COUNTER PROTESTS The German government has sent a proposal for the create of "Special Units" to the EU "Heads of central bodies for public order and security" to counter protests at EU Council meetings and other international meetings. In a report dated 20 September, the German government has proposed to other EU states that, in response to "events in Gothenburg and Genoa", each should form and make available "special units" to implement: "joint and harmonised measures against travelling offenders committing violent acts" and proposes that: "the preconditions must be established to enable one Member State to request the support of special units from other Member States" Tony Bunyan, editor of Statewatch comments: "We are living in very dangerous times in many senses. The use of armed and specially trained para-military police units to counter protests in the EU will tend to escalate violence not diminish it. But, more importantly, it is part of a strategy to treat protestors as the same kind of "threat" as terrorists. This can only lead to a curtailment of the right of free movement and the democratic right to demonstrate." The full text of the report and analysis is on: <http://www.statewatch.org/news/2001/oct/01paramilitary.htm>
