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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (12456)	6/18/1999 3:43:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

Can this happen in China? <gg> FOCUS-London police clash with protesters 02:52 p.m Jun 18, 1999 Eastern By Alexander Smith and James Crombie LONDON, June 18 (Reuters) - Several people were hurt in London's financial district on Friday when anti-capitalist demonstrators threw missiles at police, burned cars and pushed their way into one of the major financial exchanges. By mid-evening police had herded the protesters away from the City of London into Trafalgar Square in London's West End, where at least 2,000 people gathered and showed no sign of dispersing. The protests were among the most violent in the capital since the late 1980s saw riots against the poll tax -- a new form of local taxation introduced by former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Nearby roads and underground train stations were closed and police and London Transport officials said transport services in the capital had been thrown into chaos. For much of the day the violence had been sporadic, but at around 5 p.m. (1600 GMT) police charged demonstrators in a narrow street close to the Bank of England, triggering a hail of bricks and stones. Demonstrators then set cars alight on streets close to the Thames River and threw more missiles at police. A small group smashed their way into the offices of Dutch-owned Rabobank RABO.CN and began throwing computers out of the windows. Several people with bloodied heads could be seen walking around the streets. Some demonstrators and eyewitnesses accused riot police of starting the trouble by charging into what they said had been a peaceful protest. The only person reported injured before the later violence was a young woman who had been jumping on top of a police van when it suddenly drove off under a rain of missiles. A police spokesman said she was caught under the wheels and had been taken to hospital with concussion. Some protesters managed to get into the LIFFE derivatives exchange, which decided to evacuate the building after normal trading ended at 4:15 p.m. (1515 GMT). Electronic trading however was cut off early. Assistant Commissioner James Hart, in charge of policing the demonstration, said it was clear some demonstrators had been out to create ''havoc and mayhem'' in central London. ''What they have done is systematically attack the police most of the afternoon, turning their attention on members of the public and on city buildings as they've seen fit,'' he told BBC radio. By 1800 GMT police had begun pushing protesters out of the financial district, forcing them down a main road leading towards Trafalgar Square, police told reporters on the scene. In the square protesters from disparate groups ranging from anti-monarchists to the anti-car group Reclaim The Streets joined forces with demonstrators calling on Britain to end third world debt. Main arteries leading into the square were shut as police tried to gain control of the area, and the road leading to Queen Elizabeth's Buckingham Palace residence was barred. The demonstration against capitalism had begun peacefully as 3,000 protesters -- some of them drinking heavily -- gathered around London's Liverpool Street for what the organisers had billed as a carnival. They staged peaceful sit-ins outside the Bank of England and the Treasury (finance ministry). Outside the Bank, someone had put up a large sign which read ''Greed Breeds Mean Deeds.'' Many of the London protesters were ''crusties'' -- the nickname for a certain type of unkempt activist campaigning for issues like animal rights and the homeless. A group of some 300 cyclists pedalled slowly, bringing traffic to a halt in the tight network of streets. ''Why don't you turn your engine off?'' one cyclist urged a taxi-driver stuck in a monster jam on Cannon Street. ''Because I want to fumigate you,'' he shouted back. A retired City worker was more disparaging. ''They all live in trees and swamps,'' he said. Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.