Russia police break up G8 sit-in, up to 37 held

ST PETERSBURG, Russia, July 16 (Reuters) Russian police today detained up to 37 anti-globalisation protesters who briefly blocked a road in the city hosting this weekend's Group of Eight summit.

The demonstrators, who included European Union nationals, sat down in the middle of St Petersburg's main thoroughfare and held up posters with the slogan ''No G8!'', said Olga Miryasova of campaign group the Anti-G8 Network.

She said 37 participants were detained, but police confirmed only 22 detentions. Demonstrations around the summit have been low-key, in sharp contrast to the mass rallies at past G8 gatherings.

Activists say Russian police have used intimidation and arbitrary detentions to keep protesters away from the city.

Officials say people are free to protest but only if they abide by the law.

Miryasova said the protesters who took part in the sit-in on Nevsky Prospekt were from Belarus, Britain, Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, Russia and Ukraine.

''We wanted to voice our demands: to stop the commercialisation of education and not develop nuclear energy,'' she said.

''Our people sat down on the ground and joined hands ... The riot police dragged them off. No one was wounded. The riot police used truncheons.'' G8 leaders are meeting at a former imperial palace just outside St Petersburg, about a 40-minute drive from Nevsky Prospekt.

Police also said they had detained four protesters outside the Pribaltiiskaya Hotel, where journalists covering the G8 summit are staying.

A police spokesman said they tried to stage an unauthorised rally against the authoritarian rule of President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, which is Russia's main post-Soviet ally.

The spokesman also said 29 participants in yesterday's anti-globalist march in central St Petersburg would appear in court today. Those found guilty of disrupting public order face up to two weeks in jail.

Less than 300 people took part in the march, called by the Communist party and its allies.

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