Amnesty International on G8 summit

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday June 10, 2003 19:28 by Fintan Lane - Cork Anti-War Campaign corkantiwar at hotmail dot com

News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International AI Index: EUR 43/003/2003 5 June 2003 Switzerland/G8: Allegations of human rights violations must be investigated

News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International

AI Index: EUR 43/003/2003
5 June 2003

Switzerland/G8: Allegations of human rights violations must be
investigated

Amnesty International is concerned by emerging allegations of
instances of unwarranted and excessive use of force by police
officers against peaceful protestors and bystanders in the aftermath
of the G8 Summit. There are also claims of arbitrary arrests and of
violations of some of the fundamental rights of people deprived of
their liberty.

"The authorities must initiate prompt, thorough, and impartial
investigations into emerging allegations of human rights violations
by police officers, where there is reasonable ground to believe that
such violations have occurred, even if no formal complaint has been
made. Where there is sufficient admissible evidence, the suspects
should be prosecuted," Amnesty International stated.

Amnesty International is not aware of any allegations of human rights
violations by law enforcement officers operating in Switzerland which
have emerged from the two main -- centrally organized and authorized
-- anti-G8 demonstrations which took place on 29 May 2003 in
Lausanne, and between Geneva and Annemasse (France) on 1 June.

However, allegations have been made in the context of other recent
demonstrations and violent clashes between protestors and police
which have taken place in and around the cities of Geneva and
Lausanne. Reports received by Amnesty International include the
following:

* On 1 June over 400 people were reportedly held for several hours
inside a campsite for demonstrators near Lausanne while police,
apparently seeking rioters and looters, proceeded with identity
checks. Over 150 were transferred to, and held for further hours, in
temporary detention facilities. Allegations regarding their treatment
include: deprivation of food and water while exposed to intense heat
for a prolonged period; failure to provide prompt and adequate
medical attention; detention in overcrowded, confined facilities
described as "cage-like"; women forced to use toilets in
sight of male officers; detention of minors without parents being
informed.

* It has been claimed that on 1 June, German police officers
(assisting the G8 policing operation and attached to the Geneva
cantonal police) used unwarranted and excessive force against a group
of reportedly peaceful demonstrators returning from the
Geneva-Annemasse demonstration, including children, the disabled and
elderly, who were trapped in a street where a violent confrontation
ensued between the police and violent protestors. Accompanying them
was Guy Smallman, a UK photographer reporting on G8 events, who was
hit on his left calf, apparently by a stun grenade, and suffered
serious skin and muscle damage requiring a series of operations.
Police officers allegedly shouted abuse at him during the wait for an
ambulance.

* There are reports that on 1 June several people offering only
verbal or passive resistance were subjected to baton blows to the
head, in at least one case requiring hospital treatment, during a
police raid carried out on a cultural centre in Geneva which was
temporarily housing independent media outlets reporting on anti-G8
protests. The authorities stated that the raid was carried out in
order to track down rioters; some eight arrests were made.

* A member of a Geneva 'Legal Team' acting as an independent and
officially-recognized observer of events on the streets during the G8
period has lodged a criminal complaint alleging that a German police
officer subjected him to a gratuitous assault. He said the officer
used his baton to strike him on his arm and back, even though his
Legal Team identification label was clearly displayed and he shouted
out that he was a member of the Legal Team.

Amnesty International welcomes the prompt opening of an
investigation, entrusted to an examining magistrate, into the
circumstances which resulted in Martin Shaw, a UK citizen, suffering
multiple fractures on 1 June, as a result of falling from a bridge on
the Lausanne-Geneva motorway, after a police officer cut the rope
from which he was hanging. (Martin Shaw and other protestors had
blocked the motorway by stretching a banner and a rope across it: he
and a female protestor were hanging on either side of the motorway,
at the ends of the rope.) The police have stated that the rope was
cut accidentally: protestors who were at the scene dispute this.

The organization recognizes the difficulties faced in policing major
international meetings, especially if certain factions are set on
causing violence and also recognizes that the authorities have a duty
to ensure the safety and security of participants in such meetings,
as well as of peaceful demonstrators, local inhabitants and property.

Amnesty International does not oppose the lawful use of reasonable
force by law enforcement officers: if violence is used, the
authorities must uphold law and order. However, policing must be
carried out with full respect for international human rights
standards, as underlined in letters the organization sent to the
Swiss authorities in the lead-up to G8.

Background

In the lead-up to the G8 summit and the numerous connected
demonstrations and protests expected in Switzerland, Amnesty
International wrote to the relevant federal and cantonal authorities
involved in the G8 policing operation.

In its letters the organization recognized and welcomed the steps
taken by the authorities to enter into dialogue with demonstrators in
the lead-up to G8 and the affirmation, in the rules of engagement
adopted by the relevant cantonal and city authorities in May 2003,
that proportionality should be a guiding principle for all G8 police
interventions. At the same time, Amnesty International called on the
authorities to ensure that all law enforcement officers, security and
military personnel, both domestic and foreign, engaged in G8 policing
be aware of, and act at all times in accordance with, key
international human rights standards relating to: freedom of
expression and assembly, the use of force and firearms by law
enforcement officials, the right not to be subjected to arbitrary
arrest or detention and the fundamental rights of people deprived of
their liberty.

Amnesty International also urged that all officers, both domestic and
foreign, engaged in direct interventions with the public during the
G8 policing operation in Switzerland prominently display some form of
individual identification -- such as a service number -- in line with
the European Code of Police Ethics. The organization expressed
concern at police statements that this would not be done, as it could
clearly prevent the identification of alleged assailants and thus
provide them with complete impunity.

Click here for further information on the G8 summit: http://amnesty-news.c.tclk.net/maaa9HpaaYwtVbdR4zmb/

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