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Elizabeth Neuffer
1956-2003
Memorial Book

Swiss wave protest damage bill

By Alexander G. Higgins, Associated Press, 6/4/2003

ENEVA -- When France hosted the Group of Eight summit just across the border, Switzerland ended up with most of the protesters, some of them costing millions of dollars in looting and vandalism.

Now, the Swiss say they don't want to be stuck with the bill as well.

''Who will pay for the damage?'' asked the daily Tribune de Geneve in its lead story yesterday. ''The battle has begun.''

After the summit wound up yesterday, the Geneva city government declared it was fed up with protests and banned any further public gatherings, telling police to ''concentrate their efforts to stop these new forms of criminality.''

Riot police were out in force last evening in Geneva, backed up by two water cannons, despite the apparent absence of demonstrators. Their presence drew people out into the street to complain about the heavy security, and police fired water, tear gas, and rubber pellets to disperse a crowd that included about 20 people sitting in the road.

With protesters breaking windows, setting fires and looting over the previous three days, initial estimates of damage to banks and shops in Geneva have run into several million dollars. Damage in Lausanne was at least in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, officials said.

President Jacques Chirac of France apologized to the people who suffered rounds of devastation from the violent so-called Black Bloc protesters, who blended in with other demonstrators opposing the June 1-3 summit of the world's seven industrialized powers and Russia.

He said in a closing summit statement that businesses and other victims would ''of course be compensated'' but didn't say how much France might pay.

This story ran on page A9 of the Boston Globe on 6/4/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.