It looks as if soon it will not be possible to hold a world economic conference without major protests!
The Swiss have now translated their letter on their web site, into English (below)
Their web site has the letter 'O' of DAVOS in the form of a smoking bomb. This contrasts to the reasonableness of the letter to the Davos authorities. But is not inconsistent with the following item on the Guardian Breaking News Page.
_________
Damage Linked to Swiss Economy Forum
Sunday January 16, 2000 12:50 pm
CHUR, Switzerland (AP) - Windows at a conference center in the ski resort of Davos were damaged in an overnight attack apparently aimed at an annual gathering of world government and business leaders being held later this month, police said Sunday.
The minor damage, which appeared to be caused by explosives, was discovered late Saturday night, Graubuenden canton (state) police said in a statement.
It was unclear who was responsible. But a fax sent anonymously from a telephone booth to local media claimed an ``attack on the World Economic Forum,'' which holds its annual meeting in the building.
Local authorities have announced beefed up security measures for the gathering Jan. 27-Feb. 1, which President Clinton is to attend.
An anti-free trade group has applied to hold a demonstration in Davos.
Organizers choose Davos for the annual forum in part because it is easy to control access over road and rail links up narrow valleys in eastern Switzerland."
_______
Chris Burford
London
___________________________________
7270 Davos Platz
12 January 2000
Open letter to the Lower Chamber of the County of Davos
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Anti-WTO Coordination Switzerland has submitted, on 9 December 1999, a request for a permission for a demonstration against the World Economic Forum on 29 January 2000. The planned demonstration is meant to protest economic policies that increase the injustice between North and South and especially further deteriorates the situation of women.
For a long period of time the authorities of the county of Davos and the canton of Graubunden just didn't treat the request. After we resolutely demanded it, a meeting took place between two representatives of the Anti-WTO Coordination and representatives of the county of Davos as well as the cantonal police of Graubunden in order to discuss how to proceed with respect to the permission to demonstrate. At that meeting the authorities announced that no permission will be granted for 29 January because Davos is not comparable to a big city and because of the great traffic there is not enough space on a Saturday for a demonstration march. However, the town of Davos was prepared to grant a permission for Sunday, 30 January.
However, for the Anti-WTO Coordination it is not possible any longer at this late point in time to postpone the demonstration, since the mobilization has started quite some time ago in Switzerland and internationally and it would be impossible to inform all the persons interested that the demonstration is being postponed. The Anti-WTO Coordination has said precisely this to the authorities of Graubunden at the meeting on 11 January and has proposed a compromise solution: The Anti-WTO Coordination would do without a demonstration march on 29 January and content itself with a rally on a square in Davos instead.
Some hours later the Anti-WTO Coordination was informed over the phone that no demonstrations or rallies would be permitted on 29 January. "In view of the incoming and outgoing traffic on Saturday 29 January 2000 we cannot grant you permission on the date you applied for," a registered letter arriving on 12 December subsequently complemented the explanation. The Lower Chamber of the County Council has yet to explain in what way a rally would disturb traffic. In return, and against the explicit wish of the petitioners, the Lower Chamber gave its permission for a demonstration on 30 January.
We are convinced that this decision is related to the flying visit by US President Bill Clinton that was just recently announced for 29 January. Even though the visit in question is a private visit to an informal meeting the authorities in Davos act as if it was an official state visit (Happiness abounds! - to quote a Swiss politician known for his zeal). At the same time a de facto state of emergency is being set up in Davos through massive police presence and the announced deployment of military troops. At the same time the right to free expression of opinion is to be postponed to the next day.
Last year already the administrative court in Chur had, after the fact, reprimanded the county of Davos for its general ban on demonstrations during the WEF 99. We see the decision of the Lower Chamber of the County Council as just another example of the privileges the 'global leaders' afford themselves.
We resolutely protest against this violation of the right to free expression of opinion and support the appeal of the Anti-WTO Coordination against the decision of the Lower Chamber of the County Council not to allow the demonstration announced for 29 January 2000. We demand from the authorities of Davos that they grant permission for the demonstration on 29 January.
With best regards,
At 13:12 14/01/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 08:54:40 PST
>
>Anti-WTO-Koordination, PF 7611, 3001 Bern, Fax: 031 302 78 74
>Info: http://www.reitschule.ch/reitschule/anti-wto
>
>Dear friends!
>
>Yesterday the city of Davos announced that it won't tolerate the
>international demonstration against the 30. World Economic Forum WEF on
>january 29th for which the anti-WTO-coordination switzerland and other
>groups called. For the security of US-president Bill Clinton and against
>any resistance (We guess they know what happened in Seattle!) thousands of
>policemen, private security guards and military will transform the little
>place in the swiss mountains into a high security area. The
>anti-WTO-coordination protests against this decision which is a clear
>violation of our civil rights and which is another strong proove for the
>way the so called 'global leaders' of the WEF deal with critical
>mouvements and the huge part of the people around the world, especially in
>the south. It's the same spirit like the one of the MAI or the Millenium
>Round of the WTO: All rights to the investors. We deny the WEF and other
>private meetings of the economic lobbies every legitimation to negotiate
>the future of our world.
>
>We call all progressive mouvements and groups to support and sign our
>letter of protest. Unfortunately we didn't manage until now to translate
>this text in English. Please mail your answer as soon as possible to:
>Anti-WTO-Koordination >anti-wto at reitschule.ch<
>
>