ET

Police will shoot, Salzburg summit protesters warned By Michael Leidig in Vienna

AUSTRIA has given police permission to shoot protesters if violence gets out of hand at an economic summit in Salzburg this weekend.

Major Rudolf Gollia, a senior adviser to the Interior Minister, said: "We don't want a repeat of what happened in Gothenburg but we will use guns if we have to." Three demonstrators were shot and wounded by police in the Swedish city during anti-capitalist protests at the European Union summit this month.

"Violence will not be tolerated" when 600 members of the World Economic Forum meet in the Austrian city, Major Gollia said. "All officers on duty, every single one, will be armed with tear gas and guns. They have clear guidelines about their use. If there is violence they have the authority to shoot."

The police are also planning stringent border checks so that suspected militants are turned away. Armoured riot vehicles, equipped with water cannon, are being brought in. Karl Schweiger, head of the Salzburg police, said anything that could be used as ammunition in a riot had been removed from the streets.

The World Economic Forum is a non-government organisation which arranges conferences, most notably the annual meeting of business leaders in the Swiss ski resort of Davos. Yesterday efforts were stepped up to head off trouble at another summit. Italian ministers met representatives of hundreds of groups who plan to protest at the G8 meeting in Genoa next month.

Italy has threatened a tough response to protesters seeking to provoke violence but it is also encouraging peaceful demonstrations. The government of the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has promised protesters a "high profile" at the summit and will set aside an area for them. An "alternative summit" on the topic of world poverty, to which Nelson Mandela will be invited, is being offered.

But the possibility of violence remains high. The hardline Rete No Global (Non-Global Network) has sent Antonio Scajola, the Interior Minister, and Renato Ruggiero, the Foreign Minister, empty bullet casings as a reminder of the events at Gothenburg,

The Genoa Social Forum, which represents 750 international and Italian protest groups, has demanded that police in Genoa must go unarmed and that a buffer area, where protests will be banned, should be scrapped.

It is also calling for a planned restoration of border checks at the Italian border with France to be dropped, and for a ban on travel to Genoa to be lifted. Its leader, Vittorio Agnoletto, expects 100,000 protesters at the summit.

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2001