Reaction to Rostock Riots Politicians Call For Crackdown on Violent G-8 Protesters
Germany was shocked this weekend by images of violence in the Baltic port city of Rostock, where violent anti-G-8 protesters clashed with police just days before the start of the G-8 summit in Germany. Around 1,000 police and demonstrators were injured in violent clashes which followed an otherwise peaceful demonstration, with anarchists throwing stones at police and setting cars on fire.
In the aftermath of the violence, politicians and police are debating how best to prevent a repeat of such violence as the G-8 leaders prepare to meet in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm. Meanwhile non-violent protesters have distanced themselves from the rioters.
Conservative politicians have called for a crackdown on the violent anarchists known as the Black Bloc or Autonomen, who are seen as being behind Saturday's violence. Saarland premier Peter Müller, who belongs to the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), called for rioters to be "withdrawn from circulation early" and put into "preventive custody." Fellow CDU politician Volker Kauder urged peaceful demonstrators to "clearly separate themselves from left-wing anarchists who want to riot."
The conservative interior minister of Bavaria, Günther Beckstein, criticized the organizers of Saturday's demonstration, saying they had a "large moral responsibility" for the violence. "They did not succeed in making sure that their own demonstration went off peacefully," he said in a radio interview Monday. "There can be no accusations against the police, rather things went wrong on the side of the organizers."
However Harald Ringstorff, the premier of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state, where the summit is being held, defended the police approach to dealing with the demonstration. Although future police strategy would be "re-adjusted if necessary" once the events of Saturday had been evaluated, he said the basic approach of de-escalation would remain the same.
Rostock police chief Knut Abramowski similarly rejected criticism of the police, saying that the goal of preventing violent demonstrators from reaching the downtown area of Rostock had been achieved, even if a large number of police had been injured.
Other voices within the police were more critical. The German Police Union (DPolG) called for a re-evaulation of the current strategy. "We have to consider very carefully if a de-escalation strategy, like the one which has been used until now, is still appropriate," said union leader Wolfgang Speck.
Konrad Freiberg, head of another police union, the GdP, also criticized the current approach. "The de-escalation approach was followed, and in retrospect, I believe, people will realize that the perpetrators of violence can not be controlled in that way," said Freiberg.
Police forces had until now been following a de-escalation strategy, similar to the one which has proved successful against Berlin's annual May 1 riots in recent years, which involves tactics such as police officers from special "anti-conflict" teams mingling with protesters in an effort to mediate and defuse tension.
Police said that more than 2,000 violent extremists took part in the protests and admitted that the number of officers on the ground was not enough to cope with such large numbers of rioters. "Where were we supposed to get more people from?" Jörn Schedlitzki, spokesman for the special G-8 security police unit Kavala, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Heiligendamm and the other important locations in Rostock still had to be protected, after all."
Around 1,000 people were injured in the riots, including 433 police and 520 demonstrators, while around 130 G-8 opponents were held by police. Arrest warrants were issued against nine of the detainees on Sunday evening by a court in Rostock, and a tenth person was detained in custody. The others were released.
A spokesman for the federal Interior Ministry said Monday that between 15 and 20 percent of the rioters who were taken into custody Saturday were foreigners, without disclosing which countries they were from.
Several groups within the loose-knit coalition of G-8 opponents sought to distance themselves from the violent anarchists. The anti-globalization group Attac, one of the co-organizers of Saturday's demonstatation, apologized for the violence. "What happened should not have been allowed to happen," said Attac organizer Werner Rätz. "We are more than sorry."
Other anti-G-8 organizations were also quick to criticize the violence, which threatens to overshadow legitimate protests against the summit. Kersten Koepcke, spokesperson for the Christian group "Church and G-8," described the violence as "very problematic," while Karsten Smid from the environmental group Greenpeace said "it was made clear again yesterday that the protests have two faces, and we want to continue taking part in the peaceful side."
Even a group regarded as representing the Black Bloc expressed regret for the violence. Tim Laumeyer, spokesman for the far-left organization Interventionist Left (IL) which organized the block of 2,000 anarchists, told reporters Sunday that the demonstration had been a "success" because a broad coalition of anti-globalization protesters had been brought together, but admitted mistakes had been made. "There was an escalation which we did not want," he said. He claimed that the violence had been provoked by police, who had over-reacted to an attack on a police vehicle in the harbor area of Rostock: "They used Billy clubs and violently attacked demonstrators." He said that a stronger police presence in the harbor area would have prevented the attack on the vehicle which sparked the violence.
Laumeyer said he could not exclude the possibility that there would be further clashes in the coming days. "There will be more trouble, but we will not see a repeat of the images of Saturday evening," he said.
With reporting from Florain Gathmann, Björn Hengst and Hasnain Kazim in Rostock.
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