2007-06-14
14th June 2007
Contacts:
In the days after the G8 protests more and more details of police assaults on
demonstrators are being made public. As victims describe their experiences on
internet portals, it is becoming apparent that police massively assaulted,
insulted, beat and abused people.
Lawyers confirm that many times arrests were brutally carried out. Police
refused to tend to injured demonstrators. Instead many of them were brought
directly to mass detention centres.
A group of cyclists were attacked on their way back to the Reddelich camp on
June 2nd. In a dangerous maneuvre, 30 cyclists were stopped on the B105. They
were beaten and pepper-sprayed out of still moving police vans.
At the migration-themed demonstration on June 4th, demonstrators were threatened
by the police. “We will take revenge for Saturday if you continue to demonstrate
here”, “Do you want to die?”, “Go, or you won’t see the day out!” The
demonstration had been officially registered and proceeded without disturbances
on the side of the demonstrators. Police units repeatedly tried to provoke
participants. Repeatedly pepper spray was used unannounced. That afternoon,
“Kavala” made false claims that stones and bottles had been thrown. However,
numerous journalists who were present at the demonstration reported the
opposite.
On June 5th a mother and her toddler were arrested in a shuttle bus on their way
to the demonstration at the military airport Laage. They were absurdly accused
of masking up on the bus. Even the child’s personal details were taken at the
mass detention centre. This abuse only stopped when the child repeatedly turned
its head as police tried to force the child to be photographed.
At the fifth police check point on the way to the airport a demonstrator’s car
was tampered with by the police. All of a sudden the fuel injection pump was
missing and the vehicle would no longer start as the group of demonstrators was
encircled by grinning police officers.
Water canons were often deployed at the blockades with no warning by the police.
Some demonstrators were knocked off their feet from behind by still moving water
canon vehicles. On June 7th the operation at the “West Gate” near Hinter
Bollhagen led to a number of injuries, including a burst ear drum of one
demonstrator. Two activists suffered severe eye injuries and one of them is
still in hospital. Recordings show how the police unit carrying out the
operation laugh as this happens. Eye witnesses report that the police did not
adhere to giving the 3 warnings they are supposed to before deploying water
canons. Merely journalists who were standing around were informed beforehand.
Despite repeated requests, the police did not let medics tend to the injured.
A “nude demonstration” was also attacked with pepper spray. The gas spread over
their whole bodies and led to severe skin irritations.
In the whole of Rostock massive police controls took place. People were taken
into detention for having pen knives, scarfs or even G8 critical literature on
them. During one police check one woman was grabbed in the crotch whilst
officers made leery noises. Also near Wichmannsdorf camp demonstrators were
sexually harassed. On a parking lot near the camp on June 5th, a group of women
had to undress in front of all the police officers present.
During police transportation there were further abuses, as one victim describes.
“The police took off the handcuffs cutting into my hands so that they could take
off my rucksack, threatening to beat me if I moved. To underline their point,
one of the police officers rammed my head against the cell wall. After the
police finally left me and other detainees in the cell, we were told not to
speak or else he would ensure that we “would never be able to speak again”.
“In one case a police unit stormed a tram as it stopped, police beat up everyone
dressed in black and then left the tram again immediately”, the legal
investigation board wrote on June 4th.
Many received injunctions for Rostock and Bad Doberan. Often their papers were
marked with “abstained from appeal” or “lawful hearing accorded”. No
instructions were given in any of these cases.
Sources:
