5th of June: Protest against criminalisation of summit protests in Sweden!

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday April 30, 2002 18:45 by Gerd P. in Gothenburg, Sweden - Democracy Net

ACTION-ALARM

Call of social movements - Solidarity with the Gothenburg 41! Join the international action day June 5th - against the Swedish model of repressing summit protesters and criminalising them.

For the first time ever at a summit of international governmental representatives the police shot demonstrators in
Gothenburg 2001 with live ammunition.
They almost killed one person and wounded two, one of them a bystander. Sweden has set a record during its
EU-presidency in spring 2001 in oppressing summit protests by preventive police strategies, politicians and media
accusing protesters of being terrorists and the worst ever sentences for summit protests.

238 times longer prison terms in total

The result is that the sentences after the summit protests in Sweden in total are 238 times harder than in Nice, Prague
or Seattle!
In Seattle people were sentenced to a few days of imprisonment -maximum 9 days,
in Prague the sentences were suspended and noone was imprisioned, some were deported though,
and in Nice two persons were given one month imprisonment each.

In Sweden so far 41 persons have been sentenced to 12 months average imprisonment being charged with violent
rioting. At least 8 more people are waiting to be put on trial. The maximum length of these sentences in Sweden is
two and a half year -which is 30 times more than the maximum sentence of any of the previous summits.
In total there are 476 months of imprisonment in Sweden since Gbg 2001.

Record of arresting people at summits or taking them into custody:

Sweden also set a record in terms of preventive actions against demonstrators at summits in the Western world, both
considered as a part of the total amount of demonstrators at the summit or the total number of people who have been
taken into custody by the police.
Already at the meeting of the EU finance ministers in Malmö, Sweden, on the 21 of April 2001, the Swedish police
used a preventive strategy taking 266 demonstrators into custody out of a legal, broadly organised demonstration of
2000 people. This is 13,3 % of the demonstrators which is a higher percentage than at any other broad demonstration at
a summit in the Western world since protest demonstrations at summits started in 1968.

In Gothenburg the Swedish police continued their preventive strategy by surrounding 500 people inside a school with
hundreds of containers at the counterconference before any actions in the streets had taken place at all. The police finally
stormed the school in search of weapons -but they did not find any.
The following day another preventive police action took place in Gothenburg against a demonstration where people
started rioting and throwing stones at the police and policemen throw stones back at the demonstrators. At the end of
the day the police attacked a street party which resulted in confrontations and policemen shooting people in the streets.

929 people were arrested or taken into custody by the police during the Gothenburg EU-Summit, the majority in
connection with thepolice storming the schoool.
This amount of people being denied their freedom by the police at a summit has not been seen at any previous meeting
-except in Prague 2000 where there were similar figures.

This new Swedish model of shooting live bullets at summit demonstrators and storming schools where demonstrators
have their lodgings, meetings and information facilities was after Gothenburg 2001 applied to at the G-8 Summit in
Genua with even more brutal methods. The outcome of the court rulings from the repressive actions of the Italian
government has not yet been finished but it is to be remembered that the Swedish government set the standards that the
others now can follow.

5th of June

The 5th of June is worldwide commemorating of the UN Conference on environment hosted by the then Swedish prime
minister Olof Palme 1972. This was the first time ever that popular movements held counter conferences,
demonstrations and a dialogue with the official delegations at a summit.
Year 2001 the Swedish government instead introduced making the summits more undemocratic by unprecedented
repression and criminalising.

We call upon using this date, the week before the anniversary of the EU Summit 15-16th of June, in order to make the
Swedish and international public aware of these unacceptable repressive actions made by of the Swedish government!

We hope you will spread these protests as soon as possible so it can be known all over the world what people think of
criminalising summit protests. In Gothenburg a demonstration and a meeting will be held on the 15th of June and we
now ask for international solidarity:

Organization Friends of the Earth Sweden
Trade union Central Organization of Swedens Workers (SAC)
Recently established Democracy Net
call for peaceful protests at all Swedish embassies, consulates or similar places in support of the imprisioned persons
and in order to stop the criminalisation and repression of summit protests or of the globalisation critical movement!

Hand over a petition, make a sit-in or a demonstration in solidarity with the Swedish and the
international popular movements against the Swedish government!

Sweden 28 of April 2002
Tord Björk, Miljöförbundet Jordens Vänner - Friends of the Earth Sweden, [email protected]
Hannele Peltonen, SAC Syndikalisterna -Central Organization of Swedens Workers, [email protected]
Gerd Pettersson, Demokratinätet - Democracy Net, [email protected]

Enclosed

About the trials after Gbg 2001

The maximum sentence after the Gothenburg EU-Summit has been two and a half years of imprisonment.

People have been sentenced to maximum punishment in trials without individual proof, sentenced for just sending
mobile text messages telling others to show solidarity with the 500 people locked up inside a school behind containers
by the police.

A trade unionist from Norway has been sentenced to longer terms of imprisonment in spite of the fact that there has
been no proof at all that he has hit any policeman, while other persons stating no political interests at all have got
away with shorter terms of imprisonment though they actually have hit policemen with stones.

During the trials it has been proved that the police force has manipulated video materials and several films showing
police violence.

Both the film taken by a bystander wounded by the police and films taken by people who later were imprisioned have
been lost by the police, so that these persons cannot use their own material to defend themselves.

In total three times more demonstrators than policemen had to go to hospital after the confrontations in Gbg 2001.

Up to this date no one policeman has been charged with anything concerning the riots.

No investigations at all have been made of police conduct, not even of the policemen who fired the shots and wounded
three people -one of them almost killed.

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