[Gipfelsoli Newsletter] May 10th, Heiligendamm

[International Newsletter]

May 10th, Heiligendamm

- Fear of G-8 Violence Prompts German Raid
- Demonstration Friday 11 6pm London: Against The G8 and Police Repression
- Raids in Germany on G8 terror fear

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Fear of G-8 Violence Prompts German Raid

Hundreds of German police used anti-terrorism laws Wednesday to raid the offices
and apartments of globalization opponents they fear could disrupt next month's
Group of Eight summit with firebombings and other attacks.
Security officials also announced tighter border controls ahead of the June 6-8
summit in the northern resort town of Heiligendamm.
Some 900 federal and local police officers in Berlin and other cities searched
about 40 offices and apartments used by several left-wing activists and groups,
they said.
Prosecutors said they were investigating more than 18 people suspected of
organizing what they called a terrorist group that planned to carry out
firebombings and other violence to hinder the summit of world leaders.
"The militant extreme left groups and their members are suspected of having
founded a terrorist group, or of being members of such an organization, with
the specific goal of staging fire bombings and other violent attacks in order
to disrupt or prevent the upcoming G-8 summit in Heiligendamm," federal
prosecutors said in a statement.
Germany's interior ministry announced it would tighten border controls to screen
out violent protesters. People can usually travel freely within the European
Union but individual countries maintain the right to tighten checks for
security purposes.
Violence has marred past summits, particularly in 2001 in Genoa, Italy, when
police and protesters clashed in the streets for days.
Federal prosecutors said the raids focused on dismantling a computer server
where they said many leftist groups maintained Web sites and mailing lists.
Activists, who will hold approved marches in nearby Rostock ahead of the summit,
said the raids were aimed at silencing protests against the G-8, disrupting
communication among anti-globalization groups and tracking down the names of
individuals involved in them.
Some of groups that were targeted in the raid planned to block roads leading to
Heiligendamm on June 6 to prevent politicians, journalists and service staff
from reaching the summit, said one activist.
"The consequences of these searches for us is that it will bring the groups
closer together and we will continue to mobilize for a massive blockade of the
G-8 summit," said Tim Laumeyer, a member of the Anti-Fascist Leftists of
Berlin.
Police took copies of the group's mailing lists and data on their computers.
Investigators also searched private apartments, a photo archive, left-wing
publishing houses and community centers.
"The goal of the raids was to collect information about potential disruptions
during the G-8 and intimidate activists ahead of the summit," said Christoph
Kliesing, a lawyer for the protesters.
A member of Gipfelsoli Infogruppe, a group that collects and spreads information
about protests against the G-8, said that their Web page had been down all day.
"They cut the cable of the server," said Matthias Monroy of Gipfelsoli. "This is
really awful for us - all our information about the protests is not accessible
anymore and we don't know if we will be able to retrieve all the material."
German security officials have built a $17-million fence around the northern
seaside resort of Heiligendamm, hoping to keep protesters away. German
Chancellor Angela Merkel is hosting the event, and the leaders of the United
States, Russia, Britain, France, Italy, Canada, and Japan are to attend.
The protesters say they oppose the G-8 summit because the world's rich leaders
ignore the suffering of people in developing countries while unrestrained
globalization helps big business at the expense of the environment and workers.

[http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/05/09/ap3704348.html]


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Demonstration Friday 11 6pm London: Against The G8 and Police Repression

This morning (Wednesday May 9th) police raided about 40 buildings in Germany,
including several social centres and private homes in Berlin and Hamburg, as
well as the alternative web provider so36.net . Police forces searched the
"Rote Flora" in Hamburg as well as parts of the "Bethanien" in Berlin. Both
places are planning to be decentralised convergence centres for the G8 protests
of early June.
We want to show solidarity with the German movement and express our right to
protest against the upcoming G8 in June. We want to defy police repression and
show we are not intimidated by it!
Friday May 11, 6pm
Kempinski Courthouse Hotel
19-21 Great Marlborough St, London, W1F 7HT

The German police have used a law on suspicion of terrorism (the so-called
section "129a") to raid and search private homes and social centres all over
Germany. Police's motives appear to be suspicion of "building a terrorist
network to prevent the G8 from happening". Obviously the mobilisation against
the G8 is building up and authorities are getting more and more nervous. Dozens
of computers have been seized during the raids. Police also raided the site of
the German alternative internet provider so36.net with the intention to seize
the email data on their servers. The website gipfelsoli.org, one of the main
pages of the mobilisation against the G8, was temporarily not accessible due to
the raids.
Why at Kempinski London?
Kempinski is the Hotel Group which hosts the G8 Summit in 2007. Kempinski has
privatised large parts of the village of Heiligendamm, as well as beaches
around it. Heiligendamm is the town in northern Germany where this year's G8
summit will take place. Bacause of this, the whole area around the town is fast
becoming a no-go area even for the local people.
By choosing the symbolic site of the Kempinski Hotel in London we will protest
against the upcoming G8 in Germany and the capitalist system it represents.
Location: Google Maps
See you at Kempinski this Friday in London, and in June at Kempinski in Germany!
Info here at http://indymedia.org.uk also see http://dissentnetwork.org for G8
infos.

[http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/05/370167.html]


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Raids in Germany on G8 terror fear

BERLIN: German authorities have launched raids in six northern German states
over concerns left-wing radicals were planning attacks to disrupt a G8 summit
in the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm next month, prosecutors said.
The federal prosecutor's office said in a statement that some 900 security
officials were involved in searches of 40 sites in Berlin, Brandenburg,
Hamburg, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony.
"We suspect those targeted, who belong to the militant extreme-left scene, of
founding a terrorist organisation or being members of such an organisation,
that is planning arson attacks and other actions to severely disrupt or prevent
the early-summer G8 summit in Heiligendamm from taking place," the office said.
The statement said German security officials suspected the group of being behind
nine minor attacks in the Hamburg area and three in the Berlin region over the
past two years.
The list of attacks included a well-publicised 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.
Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble warned earlier this year that there was a
risk of left-wing extremists launching attacks during Germany's year-long
presidency of the Group of Eight (G8) club of industrialised nations.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host the leaders of Britain, Canada,
France, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States at the Heiligendamm summit,
which is likely to focus on climate change, global economic co-ordination and
other hot foreign policy topics.
Germany has not experienced any major left-wing violence since the militant Red
Army Faction (RAF), which waged a bloody two-decade long campaign of killings
and kidnappings, announced in 1998 that it was disbanding.

[http://www.stuff.co.nz/4054106a12.html]