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Protesters rampage as G8 leaders meet
BILL JACOBS WESTMINSTER EDITOR
ANTI-CAPITALIST rioters have rampaged through two Swiss cities as leaders of the world’s eight most powerful nations met across the border in France.
Although a ten-mile exclusion zone prevented the protesters getting close to the G8 summit in Evian, they took out their fury on Geneva and Lausanne.
The riots came as pressure grew on Prime Minister Tony Blair for an independent inquiry into the intelligence that led to Government claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction available for launch within 45 minutes.
But today the Prime Minister again insisted intelligence reports had not been "spun" to boost the case for war.
Demands for a probe into the claims - along the lines of the Franks Inquiry into the run up to the Falklands War - were gathering pace following strong criticism of Mr Blair by former Cabinet Ministers Clare Short and Robin Cook.
In Geneva, police used rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons in a nine-hour battle with demonstrators in the city centre. And in Lausanne demonstrators wearing black face masks blocked roads with burning barricades and attacked hotels where some delegates were staying before police drove them away with tear gas. There were several injuries in both cities, with two Britons hurt.
Veteran anti-capitalist demonstrator Martin Shaw, 39, from London, received multiple fractures after police cut a rope which he was attached to on one of the barricaded bridges and he fell 20 metres into shallow water in the Aubonne River. He was helicoptered to hospital.
And in Geneva, photographer Dan Smallman had to undergo two hours of surgery for serious muscle damage after being hit by a stun grenade.
The rioting, which left shop windows smashed and stores looted and required the Swiss authorities to call German police into Geneva after rocks and petrol bombs were thrown, provided a smoke-filled background to a tense summit in Evian.
United States President George Bush and French Leader Jacques Chirac could scarcely conceal their hostility when they met for a brief handshake and a short meeting later today is expected to be equally frosty. Mr Bush wants to put his "road map" for peace in the Middle East at the top of the G8 agenda. But Mr Chirac wants to use the meeting to highlight the allies’ failure to find weapons of mass destruction.
President Bush discussed both issues and the need for aid for the developing world at a breakfast meeting with Mr Blair this morning. The two men continue to assert that chemical, biological and preparations for nuclear weapons will be found in Iraq.
And they are determined in the wake of the Iraq war to press ahead with proposals to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Mr Bush was flying out from Evian to the Middle East this afternoon.
Meanwhile, ex-International Development Secretary Ms Short said she believed Mr Blair had made up his mind to go to war to topple Saddam in August last year. She said that he took all the key decisions in his office with his inner circle and in telephone calls to President Bush and his top advisors and "duped" the Cabinet.
Former leader of the Commons Mr Cook, MP for Livingston, made the demand for the inquiry, saying that none of the promised chemical or biological shells have been found. He said Mr Blair had committed a "monumental blunder" in claiming that Saddam posed an imminent threat to global security. He said the inquiry was needed to prevent any future case where British troops were sent into action "on the basis of a mistake".
Tory deputy leader and former Edinburgh MP Michael Ancram made clear that if Mr Blair did not clear up the question of the intelligence information, an independent inquiry might be unavoidable.
But Mr Blair today comprehensively rejected the main allegation against him saying he stood "absolutely 100 per cent" behind the evidence presented to the British people on weapons of mass destruction.
He said that allegations that Downing Street had doctored the dossier were "completely and utterly false" and he dismissed Clare Short’s claim that he had taken the decision to go to war this spring at a meeting with President Bush in September as "completely and totally untrue".
He said a team of international experts would this week start work on unearthing Saddam’s weapon’s of mass destruction, pointing out that the Iraqi dictator would not have defied the world community on the issue if he had destroyed them.
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