Hundreds injured in riots before G8 summit

(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-06-04 06:51

Clashes between police and anti-G8 demonstrators injured more than 400 police officers during a huge protest against the upcoming summit in northern Germany, authorities said yesterday. Protest organizers said 520 demonstrators were hurt.

Police said 63 remained behind bars after violence that broke out Saturday on the sidelines of a demonstration by tens of thousands in the north German port of Rostock.

Despite their riot gear, 433 officers were hurt, including 30 who were hospitalized with broken bones and lacerations after fighting into the evening Saturday with some 2,000 protesters who showered them with beer bottles and fist-sized rocks, police said.

Other officers were treated for smoke inhalation from burning vehicles and debris, and for eye irritation from the tear gas used by police in an attempt to dissipate the skirmishing groups of black-clad youths.

Organizers said 20 of the injured demonstrators were seriously hurt, and activist Mani Stenner said more than 165 had been temporarily detained.

People protesting the Group of Eight summit had streamed into Rostock from around Europe and elsewhere for what began as a relatively peaceful demonstration.

Authorities put the size of the demonstration at 25,000, while organizers said it was 80,000. Some 13,000 police were on hand.

The protesters gathered in two large groups and then marched through town chanting slogans and carrying signs against the three-day summit. The meeting begins on Wednesday in the nearby coastal resort of Heiligendamm where German Chancellor Angela Merkel will lead discussions with leaders of Britain, France, Japan, Italy, Russia, Canada and the US on global warming, aid to Africa and the world economy.

After the two groups of protesters converged on Rostock harbor to hear speeches and music, violence broke out on the sidelines between the police and about 2,000 violent demonstrators wearing black hoods and bandanas covering their faces.

Summit a big emitter

The upcoming G8 summit will produce 30,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, a study published yesterday showed.

The study by consultants ClimatePartner for Der Spiegel magazine found that the total emissions from the summit would total about a third of those caused by last year's month-long soccer World Cup in Germany.

"This is a conservative estimate," Moritz Lehmkuhl, managing director of ClimatePartner, told Spiegel.

The study showed that convoys of government cars transporting leaders and officials from the G8 industrialized nations to the venue in the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm from the airport and back would use 7,138 tons of CO2.

Each G8 country is dispatching a delegation of more than 20 people, with the United States sending by far the biggest team, according to the study. They are also sending an armor-plated limousine for President George W. Bush.

Guests from developing countries, the EU and the United Nations will cause another 5,000 tons of CO2. Police, technical support staff, 4,700 accredited journalists and up to 100,000 demonstrators will contribute almost another 6,000 tons of CO2, said the study.

Agencies

(China Daily 06/04/2007 page6)