"Municipal Assemblywoman Roser Veciana and Jordi Pedret, a Socialist Party
member of the national Parliament, also called for an investigation into
the police conduct. Pedret said he had been told that police undercover
agents threw rocks through store windows and then arrested protesters."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
IN THIS MESSAGE: Anti-Globalization Activists March in Spain; Vieques
Protesters Pledge Resistance; Seed Patents Menace Food Security
June 25, 2001
Anti - Globalization Activists March
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:16 p.m. ET
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) -- Led by a samba band banging on homemade drums,
hundreds of anti-globalization activists marched Monday to protest what
they called police-incited violence at a weekend rally that injured 32
people.
About 750 people marched under a blazing sun to a downtown courthouse,
where they chanted ``Freedom for the detained.'' Police arrested 22 people
after they broke up Sunday's rally, which was attended by thousands.
The activists accused undercover police of posing as protesters and
smashing shop windows and shoving one another to give themselves an excuse
to break up Sunday's rally. Riot police pushed into the crowd behind
shields, wielded nightsticks and fired blank shots, leaving 32 people
slightly injured.
``We're going to follow up on the beatings'' and demand that Catalonian
security chief Julia Garcia Valdecasas be dismissed, said Ada Colau of the
Campaign Against the World Bank, speaking on behalf of 350 groups that
participated in the march.
The human rights commission of the Barcelona Bar Association urged a court
to investigate Sunday's violence by examining video footage, then issue a
report. The panel accused the Spanish Interior Ministry of waging a policy
of police intervention aimed at inciting violence in order ``to
delegitimize certain social groups.''
Activists scheduled another march for next Sunday, this time to protest
what they see as police repression.
Municipal Assemblywoman Roser Veciana and Jordi Pedret, a Socialist Party
member of the national Parliament, also called for an investigation into
the police conduct. Pedret said he had been told that police undercover
agents threw rocks through store windows and then arrested protesters.
Garcia Valdecasas denied allegations that police agents incited the
violence and called such suggestions ``barbaric.''
Spanish Interior Minister Mariano Rajoy also defended the police action,
calling it proper.
The weekend protests were organized to coincide with a World Bank meeting
originally scheduled for this week. Officials canceled the meeting last
week to avoid violent protests that have marred similar meetings over the
past two years.
Meanwhile, Austria on Monday temporarily reintroduced controls at some
border crossings, just days ahead of an economic summit that organizers
fear will be the target of protesters.
The move comes in the wake of violence that accompanied protests at the
recent European Union summit in Goteborg, Sweden, when scenes of street
fighting and looting shocked the host country and left more than 70 people
injured.
Anti-globalization activists from a range of organizations have been
showing up at summits of the World Trade Organization, International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank, institutions they claim widen the gap
between rich and poor.
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press
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