[Pressrelease] G8: Ban on demonstrations up to 6 kilometres from Heiligendamm

[Presswork G8 2007 (english)]

Starmarch Coalition 

Press release
20th May 2007 

G8: Ban on demonstrations up to 6 kilometres from Heiligendamm.
Lawyer: „Prohibited zones are unprecendented in the history of the German 
Federal Republic.“
Special department „Kavala“ slow to process other registered 
demonstrations. 

During the G8 summit there will be a ten day ban on demostrations and 
assemblies within as well as 200 metres around the fence in Heilgendamm.
 From the 5th to 8th of June, i.e. during the summit meetings, this zone will 
be extended to a 4km area around the fence. Demonstrations are to be kept at 
a 6km distance to the conference hotel. 

This weekend, on behalf of the starmarch coalition, a group of lawyers 
lodged an urgent law suit against the injunction at the court in Schwerin. 
In the appeal the lawyers state that, although the G8 delegations have no 
legitimacy to do so, they make decisions that have serious international 
consequences. This is why international protest should be made visibile to 
them. The „sentiments of the state guests“ that the police do not want 
to upset, must play a secondary role. 

Excerpt from the law suit: 

„Protests against international politics carry special weight – they 
must be given the space to be expressed and to be taken seriously by the 
heads of states of the G8 countries along with the international public. 
Effective public visibility means specifically that international media must 
have access to the protests. The necessary visibility of the protests can 
only be guaranteed if the protests are able to generate media attention at 
the actual location where events are taking place. The basic right of 
association is even more important at such supranational events than at 
national ones.“ 

According to the Hamburg-based solicitor Carsten Gericke, the demonstration 
bans are for the most part unlawful: „The prohibition zones designated by 
Kavala are unprecedented in the history of the German Federal Republic“, 
he explains. "If organisers wishing to obtain the permission to demonstrate 
cannot hold their event, then their rigt to association is irrepairably 
violated. This is because the demostration in question is irrevocably 
relevant to the event taking place within the area of the ban,“ he further 
elaborates. 

The police are also claiming that „extraordinary threats“ to the G8 
summit exist. However, there are no indications of such a threat. In the law 
suit that has been lodged it states that the German police and the German 
Office for the Protection of the Constitution have been forced to admit that 
„sustainable indications of serious threats or dangers have not been able 
to be brought forward by the office dealing with the issue.“ 

Furthermore, the suit criticises the police organisation Kavala: „Creating 
a special department „Kavala“ within the Rostock police force to process 
this injunction is unlawful“, Gericke writes. Equally, the creation of 
this special department with hundreds of civil servants has led to a 
situation in which the registration of many assemblies and demonstrations 
have not been processed at all or only very slowly: 

„The effect has been that the office has not acted in accordance with its 
constitutionally determined duties to cooperate because this special 
department had to first be made operational and is staffed by external civil 
servants. Because of this, the rights of the organisers registering the 
demonstration have been denied.“ 

Other registrations have also been affected by the ban. The organisation 
„Jewish Voice“ has registered a protest rally with 150 activists from 
Palestine and Israel on June 5th. The 5th June is the 40th anniversary of 
the start of the Six Day War. The organisation has still not even received a 
written response to their request. 

„We are very pleased with the broad and even international media response 
and sympathy with the protests against the G8 summit“, say the organisers 
of the star march on June 7th. International calls to demonstrate against 
the G8 continue. 

Contact: +49 160/ 953 14 023 

[Starmarch Coalition] 

Background:
Material und media reports about the ban of the demonstration: 
http://gipfelsoli.org/Repression/Allgemeinverfuegung