DENMARK: Fierce clashes between police and protestors, 200 detained over demonstration against the eviction of squatters from a city centre building

Danish police fought night battles on Saturday (March 3), with groups of youths who had set fire to cars during protests over the eviction of squatters from a Copenhagen youth centre sparked a wave of protests. Police, who used helicopters and water cannon to evict the squatters from the centre on Thursday (March 1), raided houses on Saturday to find foreign activists who they said would be expelled. Media reports spoke of around 50 foreigners, including Germans. The conflict over the youth centre has simmered since 2000 when local government sold the building to a religious group. Left-wing activists have used it as a base since 1982 but the current owners gained a 2006 court order to evict squatters. The clashes early on Saturday flared after a street party with live music in Copenhagen's multi-ethnic, working class Norrebro district sparked violence after midnight in St Hans Square. Demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails and stones at police who fired tear gas in early morning clashes. At least 200 activists were detained in the clashes and subsequent police raids, bringing the total to some 600 in three days of violence. Demonstrators have set cars and barricades on fire, vandalised a high school and thrown Molotov cocktails and cobblestones at police during the protests. Two police officers and three protesters have been injured, police said. Activists have vowed to keep up the protests to retake control of the worn-down building in Norrebro which the youngsters borrowed from the local government in 1982 to arrange concerts and other events. The youths have repeatedly called for a political solution to the dispute over the youth centre but rejected a proposal to move to another building. Minister of justice Lene Espersen on Friday praised the way police handled the protests to minimise injuries, and also urged parents to persuade their children not to resort to violence. Danish police in 1993 for the first and only time since World War Two fired into a demonstration, the night of a referendum on the European Union Maastricht treaty. A total of 113 shots were fired and nine people hurt, prompting a public outcry and a reform of police strategy. Earlier on Friday Minister of justice Lena Espersen urged the youngsters and their supporters to avoid violence, and praised the way police dealt with Thursday's protests. "The police's work meant that luckily very few people were hurt," she said in a statement. The youths have repeatedly called for a political solution to the dispute over the youth centre but rejected a proposal to move to another building. Simon Nyborg said that tension over the facility had been building for some time, "The people in the house have been trying to get into dialogue for a lot of years and now there is no dialogue. So now they are fighting for a place to be." And Tom Boysen said that trouble on the streets had been almost inevitable since the house had been closed. "It's wrong of course to burn cars and make riots, both everybody knew that this was going to be the consequence when they closed down the house. So I mean we still got some politicians who knew about the consequences from there decisions to close down the house to sell it," he said. A local school was also trashed by demonstrators. The scope of recent violence has stunned this relatively wealthy and peaceful Nordic country. But Denmark has a tradition of non-conformism and tolerance for rebellion against authorities, and many Copenhagen residents say they support the youngsters' wish to stay in the youth house. Police were braced for fresh clashes on Saturday night and drafted reinforcements from other districts and borrowed police vans from Sweden, police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch said. A new demonstration was planned in the capital at 10 p.m. (2100 GMT), activists said. Media reports said protesters were urged via mass cellphone text messages to demonstrate.

ITN Source | March 4, 2007

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