2008-04-16

April 16th 2008 Hokkaido -- Gleneagles -- Bucharest

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Recent cases of entry refusals in the run-up to the G8 Summit

Case 1:

Kim Ae Hwa, a representative from the Korean organization "Committee of Asian Women" arrived at Narita Airport on March 7th to participate at an international conference which was planned on the following day by the "Network questioning the G8", a critical group against the G8 Summit at Lake Toya.

When she tried to pass the immigration gate around 4:40 pm, she was questioned by the immigration bureau and was refused to enter Japan. Ms. Ae Hwa declared that she was a "CAW member" and wanted to take part at the conference, but the immigration officer considered the purpose of her visit as "unclear" and denied her entry so that she had to fly back to South Korea in the evening of that day.

2 days later on March 9th, Ms. Ae Hwa attempted to enter Narita Airport with her invitation card for the second time. This time, she could enter Japan without any problems and was able to participate at some parts of the conference.
Case 2:

Martin Kraemer, a German activist and Doctor of Agriculture, attempted to enter Otaru Port via Sakhalin, Russia, with a passenger-freighter on March 10th with the objective to participate at a conference related to G8 in Sapporo. However, the immigration authorities in Otaru denied his entry without any reasons. Mr. Kraemer had to remain in the vessel while lawyers interviewed him and filed an objection with the immigration authorities. The authorities insisted on the refusal of entry, so Mr. Kraemer returned on March 14th with the vessel to Russia and flew back to Germany.

Case 3:

The Italian philosopher Antonio Negri was planning to participate at a symposium organized by the Tokyo University, Kyoto University and Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music which was scheduled for the end of March. In the 1970s, Mr. Negri was accused of being involved in the Red Brigades. After he was sentenced to prison, he went into exile to Paris, returned 1998 to Italy, where he was imprisoned for some time. In 2003, he was granted amnesty and returned to Paris where he still lives today. For his visit to Japan, the Japanese embassy in Paris had assured Mr. Negri that he did not need visa. Thus, on March 17th - 2 days before the planned departure of Mr. Negri to Japan - the foreign ministry of Japan declared that, regarding the circumstances of the immigration control in the run-up to the G8, there was a high risk of entry refusal if Mr. Negri came to Japan without visa. And on the following day on March 18th, the foreign ministry told the organizers of the symposium that a visa could only be issued in consultation with the immigration bureau of the ministry of justice. So, without the consent of the immigration bureau, the Japanese embassy in Paris was not "able" to issue a visa for Mr. Negri. The ministry of justice/immigration bureau announced that a visa could only be issued if the organizers submitted official documents to prove that Mr. Negri was a political criminal. Mr. Negri had to renounce his visit to Japan, as he was not able to collect all the documents required by the immigration bureau in the short time left until the symposium.

[http://watch08summit.blogspot.com]

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Citizens and former riot policemen mobilized for security in Tokyo

Less than 3 months before the beginning of the G8 Summit at Lake Toya, Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department - which will send over 1000 riot policemen to the venue of the Summit - also presses ahead with the preparation for the maintenance of security in the Tokyo area.

Facing unknown threats like international terrorism and radical antiglobalization movements, the Police Department also consults citizens and former riot policemen given that important facilities in the metropolitan area could become the target of terrorist attacs.
Citizens' Power

The Department asked local citizens to help with the security surveillance. In areas like Shinjuku and Ikebukuro, neighborhood associations and local merchants' associations set up an organization consisting of approximately 3000 people and watch out for suspicious persons and objects at railway stations and around important facilities.

Police executive says that it is necessary to put (security) network all over the society in order to prevent terrorist attacs in an early stage, as in the recent years, terrorist attacs have been targeting transportation facilities, tourist sites, venues of events and department stores.
Similar surveillance groups have been set up in the field of responsibility of 19 police stations by the end of March. Until July, surveillance groups of citizens shall be set up at 96 police stations.

Experts wanted

The security surveillance in Tokyo will be lax due to the fact that half of the 3000 riot policemen will be sent to the venue of the Summit. For this reason, an ad hoc-riot squad consisting of young policemen who usually work in the so-called police boxes ("koban") will be also deployed in Tokyo. This ad hoc-riot squad has not been gathered since the first visit by President Bush in 2002, so they lack experience. Therefore, retired riot policemen who have experienced the students' movements against the Japan-US Security Treaty back in the 1950s/60s have been hired as advisors since the end of 2007. They teach the fundament of security to the young policemen, such as how to use protection shields, truncheons, etc. and how to build a formation against the mob. One of the advisors says: "There are lots of young men who lack physical force and knowledge. We have to prepare them to stand against the mob which will be hostile towards the police."

Fighting excercise

Last year in Heiligendamm, some parts of the antiglobalization groups became violent and over 1000 people were detained. In Japan, heavy riots with flying Molotov cocktails have occured in the mid-1980s for the last time. Experienced policemen prepare the younger ones mentally for the operation and give excercises how to ward off burning Molotov cocktails with protection shields and to fight back with tear-gas grenades.

Just shortly before the riot squad of the Tokyo Police will be sent to Hokkaido, a final excercise involving 1000 persons - including the Security Service - will be held in early May.

Yomiuri Shimbun, April 11th
(Translated from the Japanese)

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MoD accuses police of keeping G8 cash needed for front-line troops

By Michael Howie

THE Ministry of Defence has intensified a row over unpaid bills for equipment used to police two international summits in Scotland, claiming the money is needed to fight conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The MoD is demanding nearly £400,000 from Tayside and Fife police forces to meet the cost of helicopters and other military facilities used during the G8 and British-Irish summits.

But the police forces have refused to pay the bills, insisting it is a matter for the Scottish Government.

However, the Scottish Government insists Scotland should not have to pick up the bill, as the summits were UK affairs.
The MoD claims it is owed £320,000 by Tayside Police for the G8 at Gleneagles in 2005, as well as £70,000 from Fife Police for the British-Irish summit in St Andrews in 2006.

Angered by the non-payment, the MoD has withdrawn non-emergency military help to both forces.

News of the row broke last month, when it emerged that Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Secretary, had written to the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and Defence Secretary Des Browne on the issue.

Mr MacAskill is seeking to raise the matter at the next joint ministerial committee meeting, which is intended to encourage co-operation between London and the devolved governments.

But the MoD has intensified the war of words, suggesting non-payment of such bills could hinder current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Our dispute is with the police forces. If they have another dispute that's up to them," said a spokeswoman.

"Everyone else who needs our support for events manages to pay their bills. We need this money for our guys on the front-line. We cannot be wasting money or having unpaid bills, because we need the money."

Pressed on whether the unpaid bills were having a direct impact on equipping Britain's armed services in Iraq and Afghanistan, the spokeswoman said: "It's not ideal. If everybody decided not to pay their bills, we might have an issue.

"It's not a massive amount of money but we have an agreement. It's always run very well in the past."

She added: "When police make a request for support, they are told how much it will cost. The MoD has a contract and agrees the cost.

"This is military aid to civil authorities. It's betw
een ourselves and the police. We do this fairly regularly. Until the bill is paid, we will only offer military aid to civil authorities on a life-saving basis.

"We don't have a dispute with the Scottish Government. We are not involved in Westminster business. We provided facilities under an agreement signed by the police forces."

Scottish police forces were given extra central funding to meet the cost of the G8 summit, estimated to be nearly £91 million.

Westminster agreed to contribute one third of the overall bill – leaving taxpayers in Scotland having to pay just over £60 million.

A spokesman for Tayside Police refused to comment yesterday, except to say: "It's a central government issue".

A Fife Constabulary spokeswoman said: "The question of outstanding costs of policing the Irish peace talks in St Andrews in 2006 is being dealt with by the Scottish Government."

The full article contains 545 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Last Updated: 08 April 2008 10:20 PM

[http://news.scotsman.com/uk/MoD-accuses-police-of-keeping.3960688.jp]

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A Crucial NATO summit

The NATO summit in Bucharest took crucial decisions with far-reaching consequences for the alliance.

1. NATO expansion to the South and East

Five states will join NATO next year or later: The three balkan states Croatia, Albania and Macedonia (FYRoM), as soon as its dispute with Greece over the country's name has been solved. Furthermore, the NATO summit decided that Georgia and Ukraine will become members of the alliance, but without setting a concrete date, for this to happen. This was a NATO-typic compromise: US President George W. Bush wanted to admit both countries, former parts of the Soviet Union, as early as next year, while Germany and France - also due to legitimate Russian concerns - where against this proposal.
2. Reintegration of France

By the way, France: France under President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to rejoin all NATO structures, ending the country's 40-year absence from the alliance’s military command. As a first present in this context, 700 additional french soldiers will be sent to Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, NATO will further intensify its war against the insurgency (claimed to be a "top priority"). For this purpose, NATO finalized a special strategy document on the role of ISAF, its combat troop in Afghanistan. The most interesting aspects of this document are that from now on, civilian counterinsurgency should be carried out (whatever this exactly means, the details are classified) and the cooperation with the European Union, e.g. by using EU-structures, should be further enhanced. Germany is right in the middle and is becoming more and more an integral part of the offensive combat strategy in Afghanistan (in the North and West, by the Tornados and the "Quick Reaction Force", but also ever more frequently in the South).

3. NATO Missile Defence in cooperation with the United States

In Bucharest, NATO decided unanimously, with support of the German government, to further elaborate on plans to build up an own Missile System in addition to the one Washington intends to install in Eastern Europe. The summit declaration states: "[W]e task the Council in Permanent Session to develop options for a comprehensive missile defence architecture to extend coverage to all Allied territory and populations not otherwise covered by the United States system for review at our 2009 Summit, to inform any future political decision." This decision is based on an already completed feasibility study, conducted by major armament companies, which is classified. This is scandalous as such a system could cost large sums of money. For example, the "Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik", a think tank with close ties to the German Government, calculated that such a comprehensive system could cost up to "40 billion Euros or more." This is also a positive NATO-decision on the US Missile System, which also has been greeted without dissent. As the main task of a Missile "Defence" System is to negate second strike capabilities of an enemy, this must be seen as an open assault on Russia.

4. A New Strategic Concept for the war-fighting alliance

According to our information - which have been confirmed by the French newspaper "Le Canard enscheiné" -, a update of the Strategic Concept of 1999 has been also discussed in Bucharest. The most relevant document on this issue has been written by five NATO generals, among them Klaus Naumann and John Shalikashvili, titled "Towards a Grand Strategy for an Uncertain World". In this document, for example the first use of nuclear weapons against perhaps existing or merely purported hostile nuclear weapons and other Weapons of Mass Destruction is proposed (keyword Iran). If possible, the New Strategic NATO Concept should be adopted at NATO's anniversary summit.

5. NATO's 60th anniversary - A call for protests in Kehl and Strasbourg

NATO intends to celebrate its 60th birthday in Kehl and Strasbourg in the spring of 2009. This is also an invitation to us, the peace and anti-war movement. NATO symbols the military enforcement of western interests. NATO is and is ever more becoming a war-fighting alliance. We should start a campaign against NATO - to delegitimise this organization. NATO is unnecessary, it has to be disbanded. The culmination of such a campaign could be international protests against NATO's 60th anniversary and the summit itself in Kehl and Strasbourg.

Tobias Pflüger

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timeline of antiNATO days, bucharest

The NATO summit in Bucharest took place between April 2-4. Activists from Romania and abroad organized “Anti-NATO Days” between March 28 and April 5, as a form of protest. What follows is a daily chronology of events, starting with the repression and abuse by border guards, police and the mass-media, to the actions of solidarity by human rights organizations and foreign activists.

* MARCH 20, Romania closes its borders to anti-NATO activists:

In parallel with the organization of the NATO summit in Bucharest, the Romanian mass-media began its campaign of disinformation and manipulation of public opinion against the anti-militarist movement. Using only violent images from previous protests, false information and unfounded hypotheses about the danger represented by “anarchists,” the mass-media transformed the opposition against war and militarism into the image of a monster that was preparing to attack Bucharest. This disinformation campaign furnished the necessary excuse for the repression organized by the state. This repression was presented in the mass-media as a “routine” security measure.

On March 20, 6 persons experienced the repression of the border police for 19 hours after they tried to enter Romania. The 6 German citizens were coming to Romania to express their disagreement with NATO policies. They were brining along antiNATO materials made up of public information – a tourist guide, a legal guide, documentary films, posters about human rights, t-shirts. After they were held for 19 hours without any legal reason, they were deported illegally, against their wishes. During these 19 hours, the Germans organized a peaceful protest, putting up banners against state repression and human rights abuse.
(source: http://romania.indymedia.org/ro/2008/03/2472.shtml)

* MARCH 21, Personal impressions from the border:

We arrived on March the 20th at about 8 o'clock in the evening at the Romanian border in Calafat. The border police ordered us to park our two cars beside and started to search them completely for four hours, looking after drugs, weapons and explosives as they said. We had none of that with us but they took all our info material, including books, pamphlets, posters and even patches, buttons and t-shirts away to copy, photograph and document them. Furthermore they took away our laptops for about ten hours, one of them got obviously opened, some screws were missing. Two women got body searched for injection marks. It was obvious that they were
looking for a reason to send us back.

At three o'clock in the morning they started to interrogate us one by one. The interrogations where made by two guys (one probably from the secret service (SRI) … They where lying about certain laws … we might have broken, to have a reason for the start of the interrogation … Our refusals to answer questions, making return questions and asking for legal support, wasn't really expected by them … At 10 o'clock in the morning, after 14 hours, we were fed up with the situation and started to set them under pressure. Determinedly we asked for food, water and information for the reason of our detainment. Meanwhile some of us made banners and hung them on the van and the border checkpoint. The policemen were really surprised and were not
sure how to react. Just before the next ferry arrived they … tried to make us put down the banners by announcing that we can leave within one hour … They said that there where no problems with all our stuff, that they make no charges against us and that they only want to follow the correct procedure, and afterwards we would be free to move on with our planned journey into Romania.
Three hours later we were still waiting at the border, but started to call for lawyers and journalists. Some of them seemed to be pretty interested, like antena1, a private Romanian TV
station. They even asked for telephone interviews and wanted to come to the border … As it was clear for the police that the press is on the way they stopped reading the list to us (they counted and described every single button) just before it was finished and gave us all our material back … We requested, if there where no charges against us, that we want to exercise our right of free movement inside the EU. If denied, we would not move and stay at the checkpoint as long as it takes. Totally confused they ran off to call for instructions from Bucharest again. The order came immediately 'get them out before the journalists arrive'. We were refused entry, without any charges, and they where allowed by official side from Bucharest (in this special case) to deport us by force against our will, if we don't go on the ferry to Bulgaria.
(source: http://romania.indymedia.org/en/2008/03/2491.shtml)

Pictures and video from the border:
http://romania.indymedia.org/ro/2008/03/2474.shtml
http://contra-doxa.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=58&Itemid=44
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STcVy_rjSvE

* MARCH 24, Human rights organizations condemn abuses at the border:

The Media Monitoring Agency and the Helsinki Committee in Romania sent a public letter to the border police and to mass-media channels in which they condemned “the detainment on March 20 of 6 German citizens at the Romanian-Bulgarian border at Calafat. We consider that the Romanian state is gravely violating several fundamental human rights of European citizens – the right to liberty, the right to freedom of movement and the right to free expression. We demand that the border police immediately make public the legal grounds for detaining these people and the refusal to permit them to enter Romania. We will immediately make known this serious infringement to all our partners and international human rights organizations. (source: http://romania.indymedia.org/ro/2008/03/2493.shtml)

On March 27, in a press communiqué, the Center for Legal Resources, expressed their agreement with the position of MMA and Helsinki Committee, condemning the repression at the border. (source: http://romania.indymedia.org/ro/2008/03/2508.shtml)

* 24-28 MARCH, Abuse at other border checkpoints:

Two of the persons detained at the Calafat checkpoint on March 20 decided to return to Germany and boarded a tourist bus from Bulgaria to Germany. On March 24, at the Bulgarian-Serbian border the two were asked to get off the bus and sent back to Bulgaria. How can any state refuse a person’s right to return to their home?

Some of the activists detained at the Calafat checkpoint on March 20 tried to cross the Romanian border again on March 26, at a different checkpoint, Giurgiu, and were again detained and sent back to Bulgaria.

On March 28, a hardcore group from Texas, Die Young, were not permitted to enter Romania at the Cenad checkpoint. They had no intention of remaining in Romania during the period of the Summit, having come for a concert in Bucharest on March 29, and then continuing their tour through Eastern Europe. The reasons for the refusal of entry were not made known to them.
(source: http://romania.indymedia.org/ro/2008/04/2515.shtml)

* 28-29 MARCH, Attempt to stop a concert in Tirgu Mures:

On March 26, in the Mures daily newspaper “Free Word,” (controlled by PRM, the extreme right party, and believed to be an arm of the secret service), there appeared on the front page an article with the title “Young and restless anarchists prepare offence for the NATO summit,” targeting our group in Tirgu Mures. After this article, the coincidences started. On March 28, Mr. Chelariu, who a week before had rented us a space for a concert on March 29, showed up on our doorstep and said it’s not possible to have the space for the concert, but we could have it two weeks later. After searching around at the last minute, we finally found a pub willing to host the concert. The next day, the owners of the pub were visited by the police and another man in civilian clothing who asked insistently about the concert. The pub was surrounded by the police and undercover agents, one filmed from a car, and others filmed from across the street. After the concert we were all followed, and the next day the musical groups had a police “escort.” (source: http://romania.indymedia.org/ro/2008/04/2518.shtml)

* 29-31 MARCH, AntiNATO activists detained on the streets by police without legal grounds:

On March 29 at 7 in the morning, 4 antiNATO activists in Bucharest were seized on the street by the police and brought to headquarters 14 for verification. The 4 refused to be photographed and have their fingerprints taken, and were allowed to leave only after they started making phone calls to the press.

On March 31 around midnight, 3 antiNATO activists were stopped by the police when returning to the convergence center from an all night supermarket. After being detained for 2 hours on the street, they were brought to headquarters 14 for verification. No legal motives for being detained were made known to them. (source: http://romania.indymedia.org/ro/2008/04/2515.shtml)

APRIL 2, Black Wednesday:

> AntiNATO activists beaten and detained by police:

Under the pretext that inflammable substances were being brought into the hall (convergence center) in Timpuri Noi rented by the activists for antiNATO days (for workshops and film projections), the owner tried to forbid the activists access to the building and called the police. Wearing sky masked and heavily armed, special police forces entered the hall and forcefully picked up everyone inside (about 50 people) and took them to the police station. According to testimonies by activists, many people were beaten by the police. One was assaulted severely enough to require medical attention, but the police kept him at the police station, releasing him only 5 minutes before the press arrived, so there would be no suspicions since the press had already found out someone badly wounded was being detained. A girl was taken to the hospital with a broken leg, and another told that the police kicked her in the head (so there would be no visible bruises). Around 60 people gathered at police headquarters 11 for a spontaneous protest against the police brutality and illegal detention of the activists. (sources: http://romania.indymedia.org/ro/2008/04/2521.shtml, http://romania.indymedia.org/ro/2008/04/2528.shtml)

> Program Coordinator of Media Monitoring agency, Razvan Martin, detained by police:

Razvan Martin, Program Coordinator at MMA, was detained by police and brought to headquarters 10, after he asked some police officers on the street for directions to headquarters 11, where the “anarchists” were being detained. He planned to go there to offer assistance to them. “When I asked how to get there, they replied, we’ll take you there ourselves, after which they got in my car – one of them driving. They told me we are in fact going to headquarters 10 for questioning and that I was not permitted to get out. So I said, I understand I am also being detained along with the others,” Martin declared. Liana Ganea, Program Director of MMA went to headquarter 11 with a lawyer hired by MMA to represent those detained by the police. (source: http://romania.indymedia.org/ro/2008/04/2526.shtml)

> Solidarity with detainees from human rights organizations:

The Media Monitoring Agency, Helsinki Committee, and Center for Legal Resources issued a press communiqué condemning the “detention by the police of Romanian and foreign citizens in Timpuri Noi. We ask the police to immediately make public:
- the legal grounds for the forceful entry of special police troops into a private space in order to detain these people
- based on what accusations are they deprived of liberty
- whether these accusations have been made known to them and if they had translators and legal assistance present
- whether to be an antiNATO activist is a criminal offence in Romania, and if so, what is the legal decree that this is based on
- what is the legal basis for forbidding peaceful demonstrations against NATO

We stress that these actions which have no legal grounds are abusive, and prejudice Romania’s image, which claims to be a democratic state of law. These are illegal arrests and abusive investigations. If there is no legal basis for detaining these people and for forbidding demonstrations against NATO, we demand that the police and the Romanian government take appropriate measures to preserve democratic values and the state of law, immediately releasing everyone and permitting them to carry out the legal activities which they have planned.”

> Anti NATO websites attacked and temporarily suspended:

The websites contra-doxa.com and summitnato.ro – both administered by antiNATO activists – were suspended, with the message:
This Account Has Been Suspended
Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible.

Subsequent informations revealed that summitnato.ro was attacked from an IP belonging to the following server.
SC-SPEED-TELECOM-SRL
SC Speed Telecom SRL
Calarasi, str 1 decembrie 1918,
spatiul 59 TOMIS parter
Romania
(source: http://romania.indymedia.org/ro/2008/04/2521.shtml)

* APRIL 3, Lawsuit brought against the Romanian Police

Fragment from a communiqué: “On April 2, 2008 from 14:00 to 23:00, the Association for the Freedom of Thought was, through Emil Moise, in permanent telephone contact with the young people who were brutalized by the police. The Association started the necessary steps for protecting the rights of those who were detained, beaten, and whose rights to liberty, to freedom of thought, freedom of association, and freedom of peaceful meeting were violated. We have demanded that the police immediately stop its abuse and released those people held illegally. This morning our Association advanced a legal brief at the High Court of Romania suing the Police department and its functionaries for abuse and violation of laws.

From everything that has happened in the past weeks, our Association considers that the security measures proposed by the NATO summit in Bucharest have transgressed any permissible boundaries in a democratic country and have degenerated to those of a totalitarian state. The violent and repressive intervention by the police yesterday is evidence of this institutions failure to separate itself from Romania’s totalitarian past. And the attempt by the Mayor’s office to forbid any protest, regardless of the theme, starting from March 24, has no legal basis, is arbitrary, abusive and against the democratic foundations of the Romanian state.”
(source: http://www.humanism.ro/articles.php?page=62&article=234)

* APRIL 3-5, Protests and solidarity actions in other countries:

April 3: protests at the Romanian Embassy in Warsaw
http://romania.indymedia.org/en/2008/04/2546.shtml
April 3: solidarity songs and discussions at punk concert in Bulgaria
http://romania.indymedia.org/en/2008/04/2550.shtml
April 4: protests at the Romanian Embassy in Vienna
http://romania.indymedia.org/en/2008/04/2561.shtml
April 5: demonstrations in Helvetiaplatz, Bern
http://ch.indymedia.org/de/2008/04/58782.shtml
April 5: protests at the Romanian Embassy in Berlin
http://romania.indymedia.org/en/2008/04/2538.shtml
http://de.indymedia.org/2008/04/212432.shtml
April 5: protests and burning of NATO flag at Romanian Embassy in Prague
http://romania.indymedia.org/en/2008/04/2573.shtml
April 5: anti-NATO protests in front of government building in Skopje
http://romania.indymedia.org/en/2008/04/2561.shtml
April 5: protests in Kopenhagen
http://romania.indymedia.org/en/2008/04/2561.shtml

(compiled and translated by Joanne on april 8)

[http://romania.indymedia.org/en/2008/04/2574.shtml]

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Bucharest Declaration

4. April 2008

The Common Voice from the anarchists and anti-militarists who gathered in Bucharest in April 2008 to protest against the NATO summit

As long as there will be war, as well as systems and organizations that support militarization, murder, and profit-making from conflicts, there will be always movements protesting against them. Nowadays NATO is the most influential military alliance in the world. That’s why wherever a NATO summit will take place there will be people resisting it. Bucharest is not an exception.

In spite of the media intoxication as well as governmental repressions, which started already months before the summit, hundreds of anti-militarists both, Romanian and international, gathered in the capital city, Bucharest.

The mainstream media bombarded the Romanian population with an image of the anti-militaristic activists as careless, terrorists, hooligans and enemies of the common Romanian people, who were only coming to destroy the city. This was all absurd and obviously fabricated as most of the mass media never even bothered to try and find any information from the anti-militarist side.

Also local authorities tried their best to intimidate anyone who might take part in the protests months before the summit. People from different parts of Romania were observed, received phone calls and visits from various law enforcement authorities. While this is common practice, recently law enforcement authorities intensified the repression to an extreme.

At the same time people from other countries were repressed when trying to cross the Romanian border. Many of them were denied entry to Romania without being given any legal reason. In the days before the summit many activists were stopped and harassed by police, but this heavy police presence also affected regular citizens in many ways.

The peek of the repression took place on the 2nd of April 2008 when the jandarmerie (special forces) brutally stormed the space which activists were using for accommodation, gathering and events. This legally rented space was raided without warning. This aggression was without any legal backing. The jandarms behaved brutally both physically (kicking, hitting and using gas) and mentally (shouting homophobic, xenophobic and racist insults). Most of the people were hit, but several were badly injured. This was a desperate, but unsuccessful attempt on behalf of the Romanian state to stop the protest activities.

What happened after was a combination of, on the one side, a reaction from the movement, and on the other, from the mainstream media which recognized the abuse of power and force. The anti-militarists remaining free initiated spontaneous anti-repression marches and pickets in front of police stations together with several human rights organizations and lawyers. In many countries, solidarity actions took place, like demonstrations in front of Romanian embassies. Facing this kind of reaction, Romanian state was forced to weaken their stance. Ten hours later all activists had been released and the activists’ space was reclaimed.

Even if full trust in the real intentions of the mass media has not been restored, it is clear that at that moment they took a serious step towards presenting the real intentions of the international anti-militarist movement more accurately.

It is important to stress that the actions and protests in Bucharest had both local and international participants, as militarism is not only a local problem. This movement has no masters or leaders, so no single person or group can be blamed or take credit for organizing the protests. In particular, it is important to emphasize that the attention of the international movement will focus on the developments in Romania after the summit. Romanian authorities should know that any further attempts of repression against Romanian anti-militarists will not be left without a strong reaction from the international community. Solidarity strengthened because of our experiences in Bucharest and will be built upon.

To conclude, despite massive repression as anti-militarist activists managed to conduct a number of public events and recognized that many inhabitants of Bucharest sympathized with anti-militarist ideas as they were greeting us at every step. For us this is a clear sign that there is no consensus within the Romanian society on topics like NATO, militarism or even state interventions in social relations. In fact many people were negative or at least critical about it. One could ask: if so many Romanian people are critical, why did they not go on the streets to express their opinions? The answer is clear: The state created an atmosphere of fear and terror which reminds Romanian citizens of the times before December 1989.

We have shown in Bucharest that no matter how restrictive the repressions are, it will never stop our resistance.

They can break our bones, but not our ideas! Anti-militarists protests will continue!