Germany swoops on militants before G8 summit

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

BERLIN, May 9 (Reuters) German authorities today launched raids in six northern states and said they would impose new border controls over fears left-wing radicals were planning attacks to disrupt a June G8 summit on the Baltic coast.

Some 900 security officials were searching 40 sites in Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony, the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement, adding it had opened two separate investigations.

''We suspect those targeted, who belong to the militant extreme-left scene, of founding a terrorist organisation or being members of such an organisation, that is planning arson attacks and other actions to severely disrupt or prevent the early-summer G8 summit in Heiligendamm from taking place,'' the prosecutor's office said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States at the June 6-8 summit, which will focus on climate change, African poverty and economic cooperation.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble announced a tightening of border controls ahead of the G8 summit. The actions are similar to those taken by Germany during last year's World Cup tournament to prevent an influx of soccer hooligans.

''We are particularly focused on dangers arising from violent globalisation opponents,'' the ministry said.

Prosecutors suspect the left-wing militants they are investigating of being behind nine minor attacks in the Hamburg area and three in the Berlin region in the past two years.

Those attacks include an incident last December when a car was set on fire in front of the home of deputy finance minister Thomas Mirow and windows and walls of his house were splattered with paint.

''WAVE OF REPRESSION'' Anti-G8 group ''Gipfelsoli'' denounced the raids, accusing authorities of a ''wave of repression'' to dismantle the movement's communication network ''All attempts to criminalise us do not change the fact that we will use the G8 (summit) to cast a spotlight on the injustices of this world,'' Hanne Jobst, a Berlin-based member of the group said in a statement.

Germany has not experienced any major left-wing violence since the militant Red Army Faction (RAF), which waged a bloody two-decade long campaign of killings and kidnappings, announced in 1998 that it was disbanding.

But authorities are taking aggressive pre-emptive measures to ensure the summit goes as smoothly as the World Cup did.

A 2.5-metre high steel fence, topped with razor wire, has been placed in a 14-km ring around Heiligendamm and police will control access through airport-style X-ray machines.

Around 40 km down the coast from the Kempinski Hotel where the leaders will meet, officials in the city of Rostock are expecting a demonstration of up to 100,000 people on the weekend before the event.

REUTERS SKB ND1820

For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X