Posted on 05/31/2003 11:12:19 PM PDT by D. Brian Carter
ANNEMASSE, France (AP) -- Anti-globalization demonstrators blocked a highway to the Group of Eight summit site in Evian on Sunday morning, and riot police fired tear gas to break up the protest. In Switzerland, protesters occupied several bridges.
The early morning protests kicked off a day of demonstrations scheduled to coincide with the arrival in Evian of most of the leaders of the world's top seven industrial powers and Russia.
Police and soldiers enforced a large security cordon around Evian. Outside Annemasse, the main French town where protesters are allowed to operate, thousands of demonstrators gathered at dawn Sunday on the main highway leading west to the summit site.
The protesters shouted slogans and unfurled a banner that read, "Stop: Danger G-8." Police helicopters clattered overhead and about 50 agents fired tear gas to stop the throngs from violating the security barrier and marching toward Evian, as they have threatened to do.
Across the border in Geneva, activities were peaceful early Sunday. Several hundred demonstrators blocked the city's main bridge - the Mont-Blanc - and several others, blaring Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" on the banks of Lake Geneva. Cars attempting to cross the bridges were turned away.
Protest organizers planned two marches Sunday, one starting from Annemasse and one from Geneva along police-approved routes. The two were to converge on the Franco-Swiss border and end in France.
Authorities were expecting between 30,000 and 50,000 demonstrators, who accuse the G-8 of ignoring the needs of the poor and the environment.
Demonstrations turned violent on Saturday. Protesters in Annemasse smashed windows at a meeting of the Socialist Party and clashed with police before dispersing. Late Saturday night, youths stormed through downtown Geneva, breaking windows and setting fires. Riot police moved in and the violence stopped.
Also Saturday night, some 500 Swiss G-8 protesters lit 52 bonfires simultaneously along the crescent-shaped shoreline of Lake Geneva in a peaceful "Ring of Fire" demonstration meant to contrast with summit protests that have turned violent in the past.
The G-8 includes the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada.
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