[g8-sheffield] Police prepare to make thousands of arrests at G8

[adriana]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml

*Police prepare to make thousands of arrests at G8
*By David Bamber
Sunday Telegraph (Filed: 12/06/2005)

The Army is preparing barracks and military bases in Scotland for use as 
holding camps if, as police expect, thousands of protesters are arrested 
during the G8 summit of world leaders next month.

The decision to earmark sites where protesters may be held follows 
warnings from European police forces and intelligence officials that 
foreign anarchists have already entered Britain and are plotting to 
disrupt the meeting, to be held at Gleneagles, the luxury hotel and 
resort in Perthshire, Scotland.

Senior detectives have told The Sunday Telegraph that more than 50 
dedicated troublemakers with criminal records have slipped into the 
country, before the imposition of stringent security measures at 
airports, ferry terminals and on the Eurostar train service in the 
immediate run-up to the summit.

World leaders including Tony Blair and presidents Putin, Bush and Chirac 
will attend the three-day meeting and police are straining to protect 
them and keep protesters at bay. There are fears that anarchists from 
across Europe will mingle with anti-capitalism campaigners in and around 
Edinburgh, which is expected to be the focal point of demonstrations 
against the international financial system.

Their numbers are likely to be swollen by campaigners for African debt 
relief, who have been urged to descend on the Scottish capital by Bob 
Geldof.

According to warnings passed by Italian police to their British 
counterparts, some Italian protesters intend to dangle themselves on 
ropes from motorway bridges to disrupt traffic. Italian police have also 
uncovered plans to overturn and set fire to lorries on the main A9 
approach road to Gleneagles. Detectives also believe that some 
anarchists want to blockade the Faslane nuclear base on the Clyde, near 
Glasgow.

Detectives in Scotland and at Special Branch headquarters at Scotland 
Yard in London, say that protest groups including Ya Basta, which once 
held a squat on a train and demanded to be taken to a financial summit 
in Prague, have sent "sleepers" into Britain to organise protests. One 
Italian anarchist known as "The Raven" entered Britain two weeks ago but 
police have lost track of him.

Some of the information disclosed to senior police officers by Scotland 
Yard and MI5, the security service, follows the arrest in Rome on May 26 
of five suspected anarchists - three men and two women, including their 
suspected ringleader, Massimo Leonardi - who were planning to target 
Gleneagles. They revealed that colleagues had already left Italy for 
Britain.

In a related investigation, police raided 80 homes in Bologna and other 
central and northern cities, targeting two further anarchist groups 
intending to visit Gleneagles. One senior detective who monitors 
anarchist groups said: "There are close connections between British 
groups such as Class War and foreign groups such as Ya Basta.

"We know that some Italian anarchists have already entered the country 
and are staying at squats and safe houses with British sympathisers. 
They are planning major violent disruptions to the Gleneagles summit and 
we will be powerless to stop them."

The *army bases earmarked to hold arrested protesters include the 
Dreghorn and Redford barracks, and the bases of the 2nd Division 
Craigiehall and the 51 Scottish Regiment, all within a 20-mile radius of 
Gleneagles*. Police are concerned that Geldof's call for a million 
people to descend on the city will provide perfect cover for anarchists, 
and fear a repeat of the violence at the 2001 Genoa summit in Italy.

There, hundreds were injured, one man died after being run over by a 
police vehicle, and the crowds were eventually dispersed by armed police 
using tear gas.

Assistant Chief Constable Ian Dickinson, of the police force which 
covers Gleneagles and Edinburgh, said: "A million people coming to 
Edinburgh - it is difficult to conceive how they could all get to this 
area in the first place and where they could assemble safely. No one 
wants tragedy to distract world attention from the aims of the campaigners."

The grounds of Gleneagles and much of the surrounding area will be 
fenced off and patrolled during the meetings, but one group, calling 
itself the People's Golfing Association, plans to invade the hotel 
grounds and golf course and disrupt the first-day photocall of the G8 
leaders.

Dissent, a south London-based anti-capitalist group, has called for 
supporters to blockade roads around the resort on July 6. Some foreign 
anarchists also intend to storm Edinburgh's leading financial 
institutions including Standard Life and the Royal Bank of Scotland and 
stage sit-ins. Police said the plans were discussed at a "conference of 
anarchists" in Nottingham earlier this month.

In response, police will mount their biggest ever operation in Scotland, 
with more than 5,000 officers on duty instructed to enforce a 
zero-tolerance policy and arrest anyone breaking the law.

Police intend to set up road blocks in a 40-mile radius of Edinburgh and 
Gleaneagles and say they will use the Public Order Act 1988 - originally 
intended to control outdoor raves - to detain people and disperse 
crowds. Intelligence officers said that S26, an international anarchist 
umbrella group, originally formed to organise protests in Prague against 
the International Monetary Fund/World Bank conference there on September 
26, 2002 - hence its name - was orchestrating some of the protest actions.

Class War, a veteran British anarchist outfit, some of whose 200 
activists have declared their support for violence, especially against 
property, is expected to take part in protests. The so-called Wombles 
(White Overall Movement Building Liberation through Effective Struggle), 
the largest of the three, is an anti-capitalist group formed in 2002.

A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland 
said: "We will be properly prepared for any eventuality. We have said 
all along that, while we will facilitate lawful protest, we will deal 
with anyone who wants to cause disruption."




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