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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Warsaw a city under siege as President Bush arrives |
Current rating: 0 |
by AFP
(No verified email address) |
15 Jun 2001
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WARSAW, June 15 (AFP) - Warsaw was a city under siege on Friday as hundreds of police with clubs were out on the streets to protect visiting US President George W. Bush from everything from terrorists to tomato-throwing protesters. |
Traffic was completely sealed off around the presidential palace on Friday morning where Bush was meeting his Polish counterpart Aleksander Kwasniewski, with regular police and riot troops surrounding the grounds.
Police dogs were also patrolling the site and sharpshooters were positioned on nearby rooftops.
On Monday police found 300 grammes (10.6 ounces) of TNT, metal tubes and wires across the street from the central Warsaw hotel where Bush will stay overnight but authorities said the explosives were unrelated to the president's visit.
Despite generally warm sentiment towards Washington in Warsaw, anti-globalisation protestors have vowed to greet the US president with a cream pie in the face and have already blanketed the city center with "BUSH STOP" and "Bush Wanted" placards.
Polish security agents held a training session earlier this week to practice protecting high-ranking officials from objects thrown by protestors, a favorite tactic of local activists who managed to hit former US president Bill Clinton with an egg during his visit last month.
During a simulated attack with tomatoes on Tuesday, guards leapt to catch the projectiles while others created an anti-missile shield over the intended target with an umbrella, local media reported.
A coalition of Polish leftists, green and anti-globalisation groups planned to stage at least two demonstrations against Bush on Friday but pledged the protests would be peaceful.
"We don't plan any radical protests," Piotr Ciszewski of the Anti-Bush Committee told AFP. "Our radicalism will be expressed through our slogans."
On Friday afternoon activists planned to march under the banners "STOP BUSH" and "Toxic Texan" in front of Warsaw University's library, where Bush was to deliver a major policy speech on the future of Europe.
A demonstration was also planned outside the presidential palace where Bush and First Lady Laura Bush will be the guests of honour at a state dinner.
A banner draped outside the offices of the extreme-left PPS party located near the presidential palace urged: "The world for the people and not for Bush!"
About 10 protestors waited outside the presidential palace on Friday morning with a placard: "Nazi and communist victims demand return of stolen property."
Poland has refused to compensate people for property stolen by the Soviet-imposed communist regime.
The authorities have declined to reveal how many police are on duty to protect Bush.
But with traffic rerouted and streets where the US president passes closed 30 minutes ahead of time, police have appealed for Warsaw drivers to be attentive and patient.
The US president will leave Poland on Saturday morning for Slovenia, where he is due to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Copyright © 2001 AFP |
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Socialists Support Public Property |
by Justice
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
16 Jun 2001
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This article was a strange mix of garble and news. Aside from the misspelling of "protester," the writer seems to agree with the contrived demand that both Nazis and Communists return stolen property. As to the Nazis, they were defeated in 1945. Perhaps this demand of the Nazis was being addressed to the Nazis' historic heir, namely Goerge Bush the Second, commonly known as Fascist Bush. As to the Communists, communists understand that all property must be public property and that private property, and its accompanying private profit, are hallmarks of the bankrupt social order known as capitalism. If this writer is typical of the protesters in Poland, we can only wonder why they were protesting. After all, they have capitalism, so if they support capitalism, there is nothing to protest. The solution to the problems of capitalism is of course to fight for socialism, and that can only be done by a serious labor movement. |
