SWITZERLAND: SWISS ARMY ON ALERT IN CASE OF ATTACK FROM KURDISH EXILES OR ALBANIAN KOSOVARS

Record ID: 355183

  • Title: SWITZERLAND: SWISS ARMY ON ALERT IN CASE OF ATTACK FROM KURDISH EXILES OR ALBANIAN KOSOVARS
  • Date: 5th March 1999
  • Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (MARCH 5, 1999) (REUTERS) 1. SCU/MV SWISS TROOPS SETTING BARBED WIRE BARRICADES OUTSIDE UNITED NATIONS EUROPEAN HEADQUARTERS (2 SHOTS) 0.11 2. SLV U.N. FLAG AND BARBED WIRES 0.17 3. SLV /SCU SOLDIER OUTSIDE UNITED NATIONS EUROPEAN HEADQUARTERS (2 SHOTS) 0.26 4. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (French) HEAD OF GENEVA'S JUSTICE AND PO
  • Embargoed: 20th March 1999 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Reuters ID: LVA76MNMT13AMPGLUH06UEGZJ75A
  • Story Text: Hundreds of Swiss army troops have taken up positions
    to guard international organisations and diplomatic
    missions against possible incursions by Kurdish exiles or
    Albanian Kosovars.

    Young conscript soldiers in camouflage uniforms climbed
    out of trucks outside the United Nations European headquarters
    at the Palais des Nations on Friday (March 5) to take over
    guard from Geneva police who have been on duty there over the
    past two weeks.

    Other soldiers wove barbed wire into a curling barrier
    around all entrances of the U.N.headquarters, and manned
    another barricade at offices housing the American, Turkish and
    Israeli missions as well as the United States trade mission.

    The army's arrival, which has brought protests from
    left-wing and anti-military groups, came at the request of the
    Geneva city authorities who argued the police could not cope
    with what they call "the current security situation."
    This description refers to what officials fear is a threat
    of disorder from Turkish Kurds -- thousands of whom live in
    exile in Switzerland -- over the pending trial in Turkey of
    Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan.

    Some 20 unarmed Kurds, supporters of Ocalan's PKK
    Kurdistan Workers' Party, briefly occupied rooms in the Palais
    des Nations, the UNHCR building and the World Council of
    Churches last month after Ocalan was seized in Kenya by
    Turkish agents.They left all three buildings peacefully,
    although they stayed in the U.N.for more than 24 hours.

    Since then the sprawling Palais complex, which later this
    month and throughout April hosts the annual six-week meeting
    of the U.N.'s Human Rights Commission, has resembled what some
    disgruntled employees have called an armed camp.

    Its most popular entrance on the Place des Nations, a
    focus for peaceful human rights demonstrations, has been
    blocked off with metal barriers topped with barbed wire,
    surprising tourists who are routinely brought there on bus
    trips around Geneva.

    The Swiss government in Berne has promised to send 360
    soldiers to Geneva, and post some 300 more at sensitive sites
    in Berne itself and in Zurich where there have also been
    Kurdish demonstrations.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register