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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| bottles thrown at Bush |
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| sabri |
| 05/26/02 at 01:06:06 |
| [slm] Bottle-throwing protesters greet president on the streets of Berlin By Toby Helm in Berlin (Filed: 23/05/2002) Clashes between heavily-armed police and hardcore activists erupted in Berlin last night as President Bush began an official visit. Bottles were thrown at police as a huge crowd gathered in front of the Berliner Dom church in former East Berlin. They responded by charging the crowd but failed to disperse the protesters. There were only a handful of arrests and while the situation remained tense, police claimed to have penned in the troublemakers. Earlier, a large demonstration had passed off peacefully as the president sat down to a meal of crayfish stew in a restaurant next to the Brandenburg Gate. The meal was part of a warm official welcome that included draping a vast image of the White House over the Prussian gate - symbol of German unity and freedom. Posters on the pavements said "Welcome!" and newspapers thanked America for supporting post-war Germany. But on the streets the mood was hostile and noisy as tens of thousands of Germans voiced their concerns. "It is a wonderful country with a terrible government," said Torsten Wetzel, a 27-year-old student. "Bush is a criminal and we must show what we think of him." The president's economic, environmental and foreign policies met with equal derision. "Bush; he should take all his policies and go home," said Daniel Büttner, 30. Some protesters chose sarcasm to make their points, others wit. "If you can read this you're not the president," said one banner. Others heaved giant pretzels along the streets to mock the President who choked on one some months ago. Anarchists, anti-globalisation protesters bussed in from all over Germany, Greens, ex-Communist MPs in Berlin's city-state government, socialists and the non-political were there. What united them was not dislike of America or Americans but fear of the man who runs the US. "Bush is a warmonger, Bush is a terrorist," they chanted. As shown by the receptions given to John F Kennedy in 1963 and Bill Clinton on three occasions, Berliners are not averse to making heroes out of American presidents. They know they have an extraordinary amount to be grateful to America for. Washington stood by West Berliners throughout the Cold War, supported Germany's post-war reconstruction and President Reagan's call to President Gorbachev to "tear down this wall" in 1987 sped the end of the city's division. Days after the September 11 attacks on Washington and New York, 200,000 Berliners stood - many in tears - in Unter den Linden to show sympathy and solidarity with the Americans. But even then there were signs of uneasiness about how Mr Bush would react. Tellingly, the odd banner warned against answering terrorism with war. Those fears have multiplied in the run-up to Mr Bush's visit to Europe. Everyone knows he wants to use it to bind Gerhard Schröder's government into supporting a possible escalation of the war on terror with strikes against Iraq. A poll for Der Spiegel magazine this week showed support for American policies was the lowest in a generation. "War as a means of policy is terrorism," said one of the banners yesterday. The loyalty most Germans feel to a country that led them out of war is now offset by a fear that the same nation will lead them back into it. Wearing a badge saying "Axis of peace", Matthias Breithaupt, 20, said: "My parents grew up in post-war Germany and they know what war has done. "People in Germany have realised that you cannot achieve anything with weapons. That is why there are so many people here." http://portland.indymedia.org/ [wlm] |
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