Thread: Violence casts shadow over G20 meeting in Hamburg

Angela Merkel condemned as “unacceptable” a second night of violent protests against the G20 summit in Hamburg which left nearly 200 police officers injured and 70 demonstrators detained.

The German chancellor said she had “understanding” for peaceful protests. “But violent demonstrations endanger human lives . . . they put police officers and security forces in danger, put residents in danger, and so that is unacceptable.”

Responding to the continuing protests, the authorities drafted in an extra 900 police officers, taking the number guarding the meeting of world leaders to 20,000, the largest such deployment in Hamburg’s history.



The G20 has attracted thousands of protesters, the majority peaceful. However, others have been violent, starting fires, and throwing petrol bombs and stones.

The clashes cast a shadow over a meeting that looks likely to be one of the most contentious gatherings of global leaders in years, amid deep divisions between the US and other western leaders over free trade and climate change.

Earlier on Friday there were serious clashes between police and demonstrators near the exhibition halls hosting the summit in the bohemian Schanzenviertel district, which is considered a radical stronghold. Flames rose from a street barricade and smoke rose above buildings.

Officers used water cannon to disperse sit-ins on roads leading to the summit venue, while demonstrators tried to block US president Donald Trump’s route. A spokesperson for Melania Trump said the first lady was unable to leave her hotel to take part in the partners’ programme due to the protests.

Police said one of their helicopters had almost been hit by a flare rocket, while rioters smashed the windows of the Mongolian consulate.

The incidents came after a night of repeated clashes between youthful protesters and police across a city that is seen as a bastion of leftwing and anarchist politics and has been at best ambivalent about playing host to leaders of 20 of the world’s most powerful countries.

The summit is being held in an exhibition complex close to the Schanzenviertel.

Local people were counting the cost of the unrest, with dozens of cars set on fire, windows of banks and other businesses smashed and police coming under repeated attack by protesters throwing bottles and stones. Shops were boarded up, with their owners saying they expected more violence over the weekend.

The anti-G20 protests were supposed to reach a climax on Thursday evening with a mass “Welcome to Hell” rally and demonstration whose route would have skirted the venue. But the march was broken up by police using water cannon and tear gas before it started.

Police defended their handling of the rally, which participants criticised as heavy-handed. Timo Zill, a spokesman, said officers had faced an “uncontrollable security situation”, after a hard core of “black block” protesters wearing masks that are illegal in Germany raised concerns “they were preparing criminal acts”.

Mr Zill said police urged the protesters to remove their masks and also tried but failed to separate about 12,000 peaceful demonstrators from an estimated 1,000 bent on violence. But he said they were forced to act after being pelted with bottles, steel rods and stones.

Some 111 police officers were injured on Thursday, “which shows what kind of violence we faced there”, Mr Zill said. Police said about 29 protesters were detained.

Participants said the police overreacted. “They made no distinction between peaceful demonstrators and those committed to violence,” said one man, Hans, who said he served as a tank commander in the armed forces. “I was just standing there with my hands up and still got sprayed by water cannon.”

A woman who gave her name as Annette said: “I’ve been at a lot of demos like this, and whenever there’s violence it’s always provoked by police.”

She said she had wanted to demonstrate to express her anger at the arrival in Hamburg of figures such as Mr Trump, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. “There are so many bad people in power right now, and there are also a lot of people who are really frustrated by the way the world is being governed,” she said.

https://www.ft.com/content/00cfc948-...7-502f7ee26895