Police brace for new riots in Copenhagen

Police brace for new riots in Copenhagen

by Slim Allagui
March 2, 2007

COPENHAGEN (AFP) - Police in Copenhagen were braced on Friday for a possible second night of riots as radical activists vowed to continue their fight against the eviction of squatters from an underground cultural centre.

Police officers were out en masse all day Friday, patrolling the troubled neighbourhoods of Noerrebro and Christianshavn where 217 people were arrested on Thursday after the activists clashed with police.

"We have heard rumours that there will be demonstrations at the beginning and end of the evening. But we are ready for anything with a major police presence on the ground," police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch told AFP.

Two authorised demonstrations were expected to be held in Copenhagen on Saturday, Steen Munch said, adding that he feared further violence would flare up during the weekend.

Police reinforcements, called in from across the country, "were better prepared to prevent any escalation in violence," Steen Munch said.

Danish authorities also borrowed 20 police vans from neighbouring Sweden to transport police officers to Copenhagen, he added.

After resembling a warzone on Thursday, calm returned to the streets of Noerrebro on Friday, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

The 217 people arrested on Thursday appeared before a heavily guarded Copenhagen court in a steady stream throughout the day.

More than 50 of them were detained pending charges against them for obstructing police from carrying out their duties.

Among those arrested on Thursday were 17 foreigners from France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Lithuania, New Zealand and the United States.

Meanwhile, German police said on Friday they had detained 16 people after demonstrations broke out in the cities of Hamburg and Hanover in solidarity with the squatters evicted in Denmark.

According to the Danish foreign ministry, demonstrations supporting the activists were held in front of Denmark's diplomatic missions in Stockholm, Oslo, Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Flensburg and Vienna.

A group of 18 demonstrators entered the headquarters of the Social Democratic Party on Friday around midday, unfurling a banner reading: "You stole the youths' building, now we're taking yours."

The group, calling itself the Action Group for Frustrated Copenhagen Residents, demanded a political solution to the conflict.

Protestors however left the building once police arrived.

Meanwhile, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen "vigorously condemned" Thursday's riots.

"It is utterly reprehensible that a few trouble-makers continue to create disorder," he told the Danish news agency Ritzau.

Thousands of youths attacked police after Thursday's dawn raid to evict the squatters from the Ungdomshuset, a haven for rebels, punks and squatters since the 1980s when the city of Copenhagen gave the group permission to move into the building.

Activists threw stones, bottles, pots of paint, firecrackers, Molotov cocktails, and set up barricades, lit fires and overturned vehicles to protest the eviction.

Riot police used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the demonstrators, some of whom were masked.

The Ungdomshuset was recently sold to the fundamental Christian group Fadershuset, which has demanded the eviction of the youths.

An August 2006 court ruling ordered the occupants to be evicted from the centre, which they insist belongs to them.

The building has been a popular hang-out for Copenhagen's alternative crowd, offering concerts, plays and debates. Big stars such as Icelandic pop artist Bjoerk have performed at the venue.