Denmark: Youths still detained after Prague IMF/WB demonstration
01 September 2000
More than 800 people were arrested during protests at the summit of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Prague at the end of September. Among those arrested were 12 Danes; two of them, youths aged 18 and 19, remain in prison along with five Hungarians, three Germans a Pole and an American in Prague's Pankrac Prison.
The summit was attended by 15,000 delegates but also attracted the attention of around 10,000 international protesters demanding the lifting of Third World debt. The demonstration, on Tuesday 26 September, drew thousands of demonstrators who marched peacefully through the streets of Prague. At one point a small group of autonomous activists threw stones at the 11,000-strong police forces mobilised to guard the summit participants. The marchers wanted to block the summit, as happened at the WTO Summit in Seattle last year. They did not succeed but later during the day the protest forced the summit organisers to cancel an event at the opera for official participants.
According to eyewitnesses, who Statewatch spoke to after the confrontation, these actions did not involve many of the demonstrators. With news of the cancellation the majority of the demonstrators dispersed and walked into the side streets to get away. During the clashes 65 police officers were injured. According to the Danish newspaper, Berlingske Tidende, three officers were set alight but were not seriously injured.
After the demonstrators had dispersed police officers sought their "revenge" during the evening, as the spokesperson of the secretariat of the Czech government's advisory body, the Human Rights Council, Jan Jarab, described it. In an interview with Berlingske Tidende he said:
"During the demonstration the police for unknown reasons were completely passive and let them [demonstrators] stone them for three-four hours. And at one point it is obvious that the officers had got angry over this massive bombardment and let their anger out randomly on people in the streets and not over those who had taken part in the riots. The arrests took place in an insane revenge against all foreigners."
Jarab says that according to reports in the Czech media completely innocent people in the neighbourhood were detained; for example a 60-year old Korean scientist, an American businessman and others who happened to be in the area. A week after the arrests the Independent Media Centre in Prague released information that five Romanians, five Hungarians, three Germans, two Danes, one Pole and an American were still in custody. According to Jarab the police have only brought charges against 25 people.
According to the Human Rights Council some arrests also took place in the days following the confrontation. Twelve Danes were arrested, ten of whom have been released, but two are still imprisoned and facing charges that could lead to sentences of between one and five years imprisonment for attacking a state official and breaking shop windows. The two Danes have denied any part in the violence and were not arrested at the scene of the conflict. According to their parents, who have visited them in prison, they have been treated badly - forced to stand upright for hours on end, sprayed with cold water on their naked bodies and placed in cramped overcrowded prison cells.
In an interview with the Danish newspaper JydskeVestkystern one of the released Danes told of the treatment he received. He was arrested immediately after turning a corner and leaving the demonstration. Seven police officers confronted him and two other protesters, throwing them to the ground. He was hit over the head with a two-way radio while another Dane was beaten in the face. They were taken to the police station where they were ordered to stand with their legs spread for two hours before being placed in a small cell around with 80 other demonstrators. Overcrowding meant that the detainees had to stand in shifts (some having to stand on a ta