Guardian (London) - August 6, 2001
Call for Europe to form anti-riot force
Rory Carroll in Rome and Rebecca Allison
A dedicated pan-European police squad trained in latest riot control techniques was proposed yesterday because of fears that anti-globalisation protesters - spurred on by the recent policing fiasco in Genoa during the G8 meeting of world leader - could prevent international summits being held in major cities.
Senior ministers in the German and Italian governments called for a mobile strike force to ensure that leaders could continue to meet where and when they want. The two governments want EU partners to join them in setting up a multi-lingual force to pool intelligence, monitor borders, intercept riot ringleaders and develop tactics to contain rioting.
Germany's interior minister, Otto Schily, won the backing of his Italian counterpart, Claudio Scajola, after two days of talks in Rome. They will tell other EU states this week that only coordinated policing can prevent repeats of the bloodsoaked events in Genoa.
Mr Scajola said: "There is the need for a new and stronger collaboration among European countries, a different formation of men to confront this problem and a European anti-riot force that could manage the phenomenon with the contribution of local police."
Mr Schily said the new force could move swiftly to potential flashpoints. "We cannot allow violence from militant activists to dictate where and how democratically elected state leaders hold their meetings."
British police are unlikely to go along with an international anti-riot force. The Association of Chief Police Officers gave the idea a cool reception yesterday, indicating there would have to be a lot of debate at a high level if such a corps were ever to be a reality.
"We would approach any proposals for the UK police to be involved in an EU riot corps for policing summits with a great deal of caution," a spokesman said. "Whilst we already provide advice and guidance to many foreign forces, we do not have an international operational role."
Britain's operational relationship with other specialised policing units on the continent is currently limited to providing intelligence and "spotters" to help prevent trouble at international football matches.
Italy's security blunders at Genoa last month allowed several hundred anarchists to wreak havoc while police assaulted peaceful protesters, wounding hundreds and provoking an international outcry. A poorly trained conscript in the carabiniere shot a rioter dead, giving the anti-globalisation movement a martyr. The conscript had been abandoned by colleagues and left isolated.
Mr Schily said the new force could be modelled on the European border police who are being trained to work in European countries that allow travel without passports.
In an interview with the German Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag, the minister advocated setting up a European database of demonstrators who advocate violence. About 400 of Germany's 33,000 leftwing radicals fitted that description, he said.
The proposals were expected to provoke criticism from civil liberties groups, which have condemned previous initiatives to contain protests, such as suspending the free travel between borders enshrined in the Schengen accords, to which several continental EU members are signatories.
Swedish police were accused of being unprepared for the violence which marred an EU summit in Gothenburg in June; but the chaos in Genoa made governments worry that militant protesters could cause mayhem at will.
Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has suggested that the UN's food agency, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, should move its November summit out of Rome - preferably to Africa. No formal request for a move has been lodged, so the venue is unclear.
Four of Italy's eight judicial inquiries into Genoa's violence are focusing on the police. Mr Scajola, who survived a parliamentary vote of no-confidence for his ministry's handling of security at the G8 summit, last week transferred three senior police commanders said to be implicated in the blunders.
Dozens of German protesters, along with Italians and Britons, accused the police of torture. Mr Schily conceded the police had not behaved correctly in every case, but he expressed confidence in Italian justice.