Spiegel-Online May 10th, 2007

German observers feel that police raids on anti-globalization activists Wednesday were aimed at intimidating protesters ahead of the G-8 summit in June, with some commentators writing that the operation was too heavy-handed.

Security authorities in Germany are nervous ahead of June’s G-8 summit of the leading industrialized nations at Heiligendamm on Germany’s Baltic coast. They do not want to see a repeat of the violent protests which accompanied previous summits, such as in Genoa in 2001, where one demonstrator was killed, or Saint Petersburg in 2006. But police raids on left-wing organizations in Berlin, Hamburg and elsewhere in Germany on Wednesday — aimed at preventing violence by anti-globalization activists — are being seen by many as too heavy-handed.
Thousands of protestors took to the streets on Wednesday evening to demonstrate against the raids. Things turned nasty in Hamburg, with protestors throwing bottles and fireworks at police.

Earlier on Wednesday, police had searched the Hamburg left-wing center “Rote Flora,” confiscating computers and files, as part of raids on 40 leftist locations across Germany. Federal prosecutors accused the activists of planning violent attacks as part of G-8 protests.

Prosecutors also suspect the group of being behind nine minor attacks in the Hamburg area and three around Berlin over the past two years. The list of attacks included an incident last December when a car in front of the home of deputy finance minister Thomas Mirow was set on fire and his house’s windows and walls splattered with paint. In a note claiming responsibility for the attack, the culprits named their objection to the G-8 summit as their motivation.

Commentators in Germany’s newspapers were divided Thursday on the question of whether the raids were justified.

The conservative daily Die Welt writes:

“The radical left-wing and anarchist scene will see this operation as a very welcome provocation, so that they will once again be able to portray their planned campaign as self-defense against the ‘totalitarian state.’ Should the security authorities not be able to quickly present a successful investigation, or at least evidence, in connection with the attacks committed recently around Hamburg, then Wednesday will probably have to be regarded as the starting gun for a very agitated summer.”

“But one thing must not be forgotten: The authorities’ operation was a reaction to precisely those attacks, attacks which may have entailed ‘only’ damage to property, but nevertheless significantly changed the life of the victims. How long should the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and the Hamburg security authorities have stood and stared, like deer caught in the headlights, without acting?”

The center left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

“Suddenly the long-known attacks in Hamburg and Berlin are being sold as part of an almost demonical master plan to destroy the state and society. The people responsible for the attacks are being characterized overnight as founders and members of a terrorist organization — and the recent debate about the Red Army Faction shows just how serious such an accusation is. The swiftly cobbled together terrorism accusation feeds another suspicion: Police and law enforcement authorities are using it as an excuse for wide-ranging investigations. The evidence presented so far is much too flimsy to justify a terrorism conviction in a future court case. In addition, the timing suggests that the aim is to make terror suspects out of G-8 opponents. However terrorism these days looks completely different.”

“Obviously the searches just ahead of the G-8 summit are intended to intimidate the hard core of the opponents and to expose their communication structures. … It would not be the first time that such an operation by the state turned out to be a disastrous over-reaction. The G-8 protests are certain to grow as a result.”

The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:

“It is highly doubtful whether the legal basis for the 40 searches — Paragraph 129a of the criminal code which deals with the training and support of a terrorist organization — can be applied in this instance at all. The desired effect was achieved, however, namely the intimidation of people who want to demonstrate peacefully, but with the means of civil disobedience, against the impertinence of this ’summit.’ …”

“In the justification of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office for the operation, it says that the goal of the terrorists is ‘to substantially disturb or prevent the forthcoming world economic summit using arson attacks and other violent means.’ It could hardly be formulated any more loosely.”

“Each demonstrator who takes part in such ’substantial disturbances’ in Heiligendamm — even if they are simply peacefully coexisting with those committing disturbances — can be classified as the supporter of the disturbance and thus a criminal organization. And this is no small thing, seeing that support counts as a crime according to the law.”

The center left Der Tagesspiegel writes:

“The raids on left-wing groups in Hamburg, Berlin and elsewhere are intended to be a warning shot to intimidate activists who are prepared to use violence to disturb the meeting of the leading industrial nations. But whether the Federal Prosecutor’s Office’s operation will serve this purpose is questionable. It is very possible that the warning shot will backfire, because now there is a significant danger that the peaceful demonstrators, such as the churches and the unions, will pull out completely, out of fear of escalation. They will leave the stage to those who do not want to stop at non-violent protests and civil disobedience. …”
“It was already not very probable that the pictures which will be broadcast around the world from the Heiligendamm summit would be of peaceful and good-humored mass protests. But Germany must avoid images like those of Genoa in 2001 or St. Petersburg in 2006.”

– David Gordon Smith, 1 p.m. CET

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,482167,00.html