Police Say One Protester Killed in Today's Clashes
Washington Post | By Mike Allen, Washington Post Staff Writer
GENOA, Italy, July 20 - A protester was killed today in the opening hours of the annual summit of the world's richest nations, setting back the effort by organizers to reach out to their critics by making global poverty the focus of the meeting.
A Reuters photographer saw a group of anti-globalization demonstrators attack a Italian military van with stones. A fire extinguisher was thrown from the van, then the protester was shot twice, the photographer said.
According to the photographer's account, a demonstrator fell to the ground and then was run over by a military jeep that backed over him. The man, wearing a white tee shirt, blue jeans and a black knitted cap open only at the eyes, lay in the street, blood pouring from his head. The police confirmed the death but not the details.
Despite the violence the summit work went on. President Bush and the leaders of the other major industrialized nations issued a statement today saying the economic situation has "slowed more than expected" but tried to reassure the world that current economic policies should allow for a rebound. Talks continued on an AIDS relief plan and efforts to help Third World countries.
A senior aide to President Bush said, "The president has been informed of the violence, of the injuries, and the death. The president regrets the violence. The death is tragic and the injuries both to the protesters and to the police officers are highly regrettable."
At least two dozen protesters and two dozen security officials were injured, as demonstrators smashed the glass on automated teller machines, set trash and cars afire and looted stores. Tens of thousands of police and military troops were deployed, with fleets of blue "Policia" vans clogging every street and menacing black military "Carabinieri" trucks parked on most corners, the drivers wearing black berets.
A police helicopter shadowed Air Force One as it touched down here this morning.
Before he flew from London this morning, Bush had denounced the protesters for the third time in four days, criticizing "some who will try to disrupt the meetings, claiming they represent the poor."
"To those folks, I say, instead of addressing policies that represent the poor, you embrace policies that lock poor people into poverty, and that's unacceptable to the United States," Bush said. "Trade has been the best avenue for economic growth for all countries and I reject the isolationism and protectionism that dominates those who will try to disrupt the meetings in Genoa."
The protesters, most of whom oppose the globalization of capitalism, were out of sight of the Palazzo Ducale, the 13th century palace where the summit is being held. Indeed, the heart of the ancient port city has been so carefully sealed off that Bush's motorcade did not pass any protesters during the trip in from the airport this morning.
The demonstrations have been scattered around the distant perimeter of the "Red Zone," the huge secure area where leaders, diplomats and journalists are working. But one concentration of protesters is just a few blocks from the palace, at the end of the street where Bush's limousine is parked along with black Secret Service Suburbans that were flown in from Washington.
The demonstrators are trying to scale fences that really are more like walls - thick grilles shaped like a baseball backstop, with a sloped top and Jersey barriers to provide stability at the bottom, supplemented by huge poles anchored into the pavement.
Protesters heaved bottles, jars and even an empty cat food can over the wall. At one point, law enforcement officials shot a tear-gas grenade over the top. A quick-moving protester grabbed it and chucked it back. Photographers were working in gas masks and television correspondents were taping their reports in hardhats.
Protesters beat on pots and blew horns, competing with the decibel of the ambulance sirens. Police fired a water cannon through the fence, and protesters held up vandalized road signs to try to block the spray.
A few blocks away at the palace where Bush and the other leaders are meeting, none of it can be seen, heard or smelled.
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