RIVA DEL GARDA, Italy, 6 September 2003 — Italian anti-riot police used batons yesterday to beat back anti-globalization protesters who tried to march on a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
The EU ministers gathered here yesterday for talks likely to be dominated by Iraq and the Middle East, although brewing political storms at home were first up on the menu for discussion.
Scuffles erupted as up to 200 noisy demonstrators repeatedly broke through police lines seeking to prevent them approaching the talks’ venue in the chic lakeside resort of Riva del Garda.
But amid blaring music and multi-colored firecrackers, the protesters were blocked by a line of some 200 riot-clad police and metal barriers some 200 meters from the conference centre just as the meeting was due to open. “We are here to disturb the meeting,” chanted the protesters, marching with a huge placard which read: “From Riva to Cancun, stop the WTO” — a reference to the World Trade Organization’s meeting in the Mexican resort next week.
Police brought in reinforcements, and the standoff between police and protesters was continuing as the ministers were due to sit down for lunch. At times the mood was tense, but it appeared to calm down as the police blocked their approach.
Overall some 3,000 police, many with blue helmets and riot shields, others with flak jackets, were deployed to protect the venue in the picturesque town in the shadows of the Dolomite mountains.
Organizers arranged for the EU ministers to arrive by boat at the lakeside venue, to avoid the protesters who blocked roads into the town earlier in the day.
During the morning, some 50 demonstrators tried to bypass police lines by approaching the lakeside venue in canoes, but were stopped by police launches, said a police spokesman. In another incident demonstrators punctured the tires of a small army truck used to bring in the security forces.
Helicopters buzzed overhead around the venue, frogmen were deployed to monitor the shorelines and traffic was banned from the town-center as journalists and delegates were bussed in from hotels.
Growing waves of violence threatening efforts to rebuild Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and arguments over blacklisting radical Islamic group Hamas’s political wing are all on the agenda during the two-day meeting.
But the meeting’s first day was dominated by the imminent launch of an intergovernmental conference (IGC) on a future EU constitution, as well as a simmering row over an embryonic EU defense force.
The IGC, to be launched in Rome on Oct. 4, is shaping up as a battle between EU states who largely support a draft constitution finalized in June, and many smaller countries who fear the blueprint will further boost the domination of larger countries.
Officials said the informal talks were unlikely to get into the nitty-gritty of the arguments. “The presidency plans to keep the discussion on IGC about the procedure rather than substance,” said one source.
Diplomats meanwhile also downplayed the risk of immediate clashes over the defense issue, saying the Italian EU presidency wanted to keep discussions away from the substance for the moment.
The dispute centers on a plan by four countries which opposed the Iraq war — Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg — to create an autonomous European military command centre outside Brussels.
Britain has presented a three-page “food for thought” proposal, likely to make the rounds in Riva del Garda. “The British do not believe that there is a need for a separate planning facility,” said one source.
