-Caveat Lector- ISSUE 2215 Monday 18 June 2001 EU calls for an iron fist to crush the summit protesters By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Gothenburg Anarchists of world unite in street riots American backlash over Europe's harsh treatment of Bush GERMANY and France called yesterday for an urgent meeting of European Union members to discuss how to prevent a repeat of the rioting at the summit in Gothenburg. Germany's Interior Minister, Otto Schily, and his French counterpart, Daniel Vaillant, want to agree a "co-ordinated and hard response to this new form of extremist, cross-border criminality", Mr Schily's ministry said. In particular, measures need to be taken to protect next month's G8 summit in Genoa, it added. Mr Schily said: "Bands of criminals are systematically trying to disrupt political summit meetings." They were playing up to the media and exploiting the presence of peaceful demonstrators. He called on national security agencies to exchange more information on rioters and suggested that known troublemakers could be prevented from going abroad - an approach already used in several European countries to prevent hooligans from attending international football matches. Sweden mobilised 4,000 policemen, including mounted riot units and dog handlers, but struggled to quell rioting before and during the summit. The country's newspapers were asking yesterday how their mild-mannered police could have opened fire with live ammunition against their own citizens for the first time since 1931. Televised video film showed a young demonstrator being shot in the back, belying initial claims by the authorities that the shooting was purely an act of self-defence. The young Swede was in critical condition yesterday. Two other rioters were slightly injured in gunfire. A further 60 people, including 12 policemen, needed hospital treatment. The Swedish police chief, Sten Heckscher, said his forces had carried out their duties "in an absolutely fabulous way" and dismissed talk of resignations. But the Prime Minister, Goran Persson, called for an official inquiry into the handling of the two-day riot. He said the violence was a profound shock to his peace-loving country, which consigned its water-cannon and riot-control equipment to museums in the 1970s. He said: "It is something we have never seen in Sweden before." Today the government will start proceedings to change Sweden's laws so that police could deploy rubber bullets and water-cannon. Chancellor Gerhard Schroder said Germany would consider banning suspected rioters from travelling to summits abroad after evidence emerged that German-speaking extremists were leading the rampage on Friday. A total of 593 rioters were arrested, mostly from northern Europe, including 10 Britons. Many belonged to the pan-European Anti-Fascist Action and the anarchist group Direct Action. The Belgian government, which takes over the EU's machinery in July, said it would not permit mayhem to erupt at the forthcoming Ghent and Laekan summits later this year. Belgian officials said privately they were appalled by the failure of the Swedish police to anticipate the tactics of the rioters after the chaos caused by "summit-hopping" anti-globalists in Seattle, Prague, and Nice. The violence overshadowed the Gothenburg summit which fizzled out ignominiously over the weekend, bringing to a close 10 dreadful days for the cause of EU integration that began with the Irish rejection of the Nice Treaty. The original aim of the summit had been to kick-start the EU's stalled enlargement process by giving the former Communist states a fixed timetable for membership Instead, the EU found itself sliding backwards, struggling to resuscitate the Nice Treaty after the Irish people voted No by 54 to 46 per cent, rendering the accord null and void. In theory, new members can join without any new treaty but, in practice, the EU's creaking architecture cannot carry the weight of many more states without risking collapse. The final summit conclusions stipulate that there must be no changes to the treaty. Ireland is implicitly instructed to hold a second referendum. The statement has already caused fury among activists for the Irish No campaign and could ultimately precipitate a populist backlash. Leaders of the 12 candidate countries put on a brave face as the text was circulated but East European diplomats said the conclusions amounted to yet further EU stalling and raised fears that countries such as Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic would be kept in limbo for several more years. Sweden had hoped to crown its six-month EU presidency with agreement on a fixed timetable for enlargement but this was blocked by France and Germany. Instead, there was a rhetorical sweetener that the enlargement process was "irreversible". But the details told the real story, inveigling the 12 candidate states to work harder to develop an independent judiciary, civil service and media, and to provide more protection for their minorities. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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