SWITZERLAND: ANNUAL WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM SUMMIT CONTINUES IN DAVOS WITHOUT DISRUPTIONS AS POLICE PREVENT DEMONSTRATORS FROM ENTERING THE COUNTRY
Record ID:
648237
SWITZERLAND: ANNUAL WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM SUMMIT CONTINUES IN DAVOS WITHOUT DISRUPTIONS AS POLICE PREVENT DEMONSTRATORS FROM ENTERING THE COUNTRY
- Title: SWITZERLAND: ANNUAL WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM SUMMIT CONTINUES IN DAVOS WITHOUT DISRUPTIONS AS POLICE PREVENT DEMONSTRATORS FROM ENTERING THE COUNTRY
- Date: 26th January 2001
- Summary: DAVOS, SWITZERLAND (JANUARY 26, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. MV: POLICE CHECKPOINT OUTSIDE DAVOS 0.05 2. VARIOUS OF POLICE CHECKING CARS (2 SHOTS) 0.20 3. SV: POLICE SEARCHING BAGS AND RUCKSACKS 0.25 4. ZOOM IN: POLICE HELICOPTER TAKING OFF 0.39 5. MV: PETER ALIESCH, LOCAL CHIEF OF POLICE AT THE CHECKPOINT 0.42 6. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (GERMAN) PETER ALIESCH SAYING: "The federal government has prevented 300 people from entering the country by administrative means [by refusing to issue visas]. Until this morning 100 people were turned back at the Swiss border. Some of them had been registered with police in other countries, others were carrying helmets, masks and other materials to demonstrate." 1.06 7. SV: ARMED POLICEMAN 1.13 8. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (GERMAN) PETER ALIESCH SAYING: "We were looking into many possibilities [to use against demonstrators] like teargas, water cannon, active involvement of the police. Apparently the police were also considering the use of liquid cow manure, of course outside the Davos city limits, but this possibility was turned down." 1.42 9. VARIOUS OF BARBED WIRE AT THE CHECKPOINT (2 SHOTS) 1.53 10. SLV OF DELEGATES ARRIVING AT THE MEETING HALL 1.56 11. VARIOUS: POLICE, ONLOOKERS AND ARRIVALS (4 SHOTS) 2.13 12. TILT UP: HELICOPTER FLYING OVERHEAD 2.18 13. TRACK: (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) MEMBERS OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP "FRIENDS OF THE EARTH" DRESSED UP AS BUSINESSMEN, WEARING BUSINESS SUITS AND SMOKING CIGARS WALKING UP THE ROAD/ TONY JUNIPER, MEMBER OF "FRIENDS OF THE EARTH" GROUP SAYING: "Looking normal appears to have worked. We have just crossed the security cordon with absolutely no questioning. It appears that prejudice in Switzerland really runs very deep. People wearing jeans are being deported from the country, people wearing suits walk straight on through. It is really quite incredible. No wonder the real issues that society needs to discuss are not being discussed here." 2.42 14. PAN UP: THE GROUP WALKING, DISTRIBUTING LEAFLETS 2.47 15. VARIOUS: (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) TONY JUNIPER HANDING OUT LEAFLETS AND SAYING: "[the leaflets] ... concerning some of the issues we believe should be discussed here. And this is a souvenir sticker to put on your car when you get home .. you are very welcome to put that away." 3.09 16. CU: WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM EMBLEM PAN TO MEMBERS OF THE GROUP DISTRIBUTING LEAFLETS 3.13 17. SV: MORE OF MEMBERS OF THE GROUP DISTRIBUTING LEAFLETS 3.21 18. SV: POLICE APPROACHING THE GROUP 3.27 19. SV: (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) TONY JUNIPER SAYING: "We have just had a discussion with the Swiss President who was very concerned to learn that people have been denied access to Davos because of the clothes they were wearing and they were being deported from the country and the Swiss President received a resolution from the Public Eye on Davos and we are very pleased to be here, walking freely in the city. So thank you very much indeed for that." 3.46 20. SV: THE GROUP BEING LED AWAY BY POLICE 3.55 21. WIDE OF MEMBERS OF THE GROUP AND POLICE 3.58 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 10th February 2001 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: DAVOS, SWITZERLAND
- Country: Switzerland
- Reuters ID: LVAF0A1QZTBRPX3JM4PTF60FN5P
- Story Text: The annual Davos business summit has rolled on without
disruptions after police turned the chic Swiss ski resort
practically into an armed camp.
Hundreds of officers continued to turn away potential
trouble-makers on their way to Davos for a big demonstration
planned on Saturday.
"The federal government has prevented 300 people from
entering the country by administrative means [by refusing to
issue visas]. Until this morning 100 people were turned back
at the Swiss border. Some of them had been registered with
police in other countries, others were carrying helmets, masks
and other materials to demonstrate, " Peter Aliesch, local
police chief said.
Anti-globalisation activists offended by the private
meeting of the world's political and corporate elite held some
low-key protests, but police reported no major incidents.
Aliesh said authorities had encountered no major
incidents, but that the crunch lay ahead if activists press
ahead with a banned demonstration on Saturday. He said police
considered the possibility of spraying liquid cow manure on
demonstrators who refuse to disperse.
"We were looking into many possibilities [to use against
demonstrators] like teargas, water cannons, active involvement
of the police. Apparently the police were also considering the
use of liquid cow manure, of course outside the Davos city
limits, but this possibility was turned down, he said."
Three men wearing exaggerated business suits and obviously
fake conference badges were handing out environmentalist
leaflets at the conference centre.
"Looking normal appears to have worked. We have just
crossed the security cordon with absolutely no questioning. It
appears that prejudice in Switzerland really runs very deep.
People wearing jeans are being deported from the country,
people wearing suits walk straight on through," Tony Juniper,
spokesman for environmental group Friends of the Earth, said.
But several minutes later members of the group were led
away from the centre by uniformed policemen.
Swiss authorities have mounted the most intense security
operation in decades to protect the World Economic Forum
annual meeting from the kind of anti-globalisation protests
that hit the International Monetary Fund/World Bank meetings
in Prague, World Trade Organisation meeting in Seattle and
last year's meeting in Davos.
At last year's forum, some 2,000 anti-free trade
demonstrators, denouncing the gathering as a "meeting of
murderers", broke shop windows and smashed car windscreens at
a McDonald's restaurant.
Dozens of heads of state and government and hundreds of
senior corporate executives are among 3,200 participants at
this year's summit in Europe's highest city that has become a
magnet for movers and shakers from business and politics.
But environmentalists and opponents of free trade say the
forum takes far-reaching decisions behind closed doors and
enhances the power of multinational corporations.
Eager to dispel criticism of Davos as a capitalist
conspiracy to set the world agenda, organisers say they have
given trade unions, lobby groups, environmentalists and other
critics of the system unprecedented exposure this year.
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