A-Infos (en) Czech Environmental Demonstration Turns Violent

[Tom Burghardt <tburghardt@igc.apc.org>]

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         CZECH ENVIRONMENTAL DEMONSTRATION TURNS VIOLENT
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     The Associated Press
 
     PRAGUE, Czech Republic (May 17, 1998 5:03 p.m. EDT) -- A
protest through Prague by environmental activists turned violent,
injuring 22 police called in to disperse the crowd, officials
said Sunday.
   
     Police detained 64 people after officers wielding clubs
tried to break up a crowd of about 2,000 stone-throwing youths
Saturday, police spokeswoman Eva Brozova said.
   
     A police car was overturned and two fast-food restaurants
were damaged.
   
     The crowd moved through Prague in what organizers called
"Global Street Party 98," protesting the impact multinational
corporations have on the environment.
   
     "Stones were landing among our guests, but fortunately,
nobody was injured," the CTK news agency quoted Marek Kubec, an
employee in one of the damaged restaurants, as saying. "But
broken glass was everywhere."
   
     Interior Minister Cyril Svoboda told Czech television Sunday
that the demonstration was authorized by officials who only
expected about 250 people to attend.
   
     The protest was organized by the Czechoslovak Anarchist
Federation and members of the radical U.S.-based environmental
group Earth First, CTK reported.
   
     Some other environmental groups condemned the violent
protest.
   
     "We are deeply sorry that this action was labeled as
environmental," said Vaclav Vasku, spokesman for Greenpeace's
Czech branch.
   
     Brozova said 24 of the demonstrators face charges of
hooliganism and attacking a public official. Thirty-five of those
detained were released by Sunday, and five were foreigners who
were handed over to another police division.
 
     Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
 
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