Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

ISRAEL

6,000 join Malmö Davis Cup protest

Police estimate that up to 6,000 demonstrators have joined a march in Malmö to protest against the ongoing Davis Cup match between Sweden and Israel in the city.

Published: 7 March 2009 13:58 CET

6,000 join Malmö Davis Cup protest

There are reported to be some 200 masked demonstrators at the back of the march and police confirm that the otherwise peaceful march was disrupted by incidents involving paint bombs, fireworks and Bengal lights.

Several of the masked, black-clad hooligans rushed the barriers holding demonstrators away from the Baltisk Hallen arena where the match is taking place.

The first day of competition in the Davis Cup first round match passed off calmly and none of the forecast trouble and fighting occurred.

But police took no chances on Saturday with up to 1,000 officers on duty.

Saturday’s march is being marshalled closely by a large police presence including a helicopter escort.

Rumours that neo-nazi and other extremist groups intend to infiltrate the march have kept police on alert.

The controversy over the match has been building for weeks and gathered pace when local politicians ordered that the match to be played behind closed doors.

Former Green party leader Per Gahrton claimed that the decision had already given demonstrators some success.

“We have been helped by brave politicians in Malmö. We thank them for that,” Gahrton said.

As play was due to reconvene on Saturday the match stood tied at 1-1. Former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson, 33, took four hours to give the Swedes a 1-0 lead thanks to a 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 7-5, 4-6, 8-6 win over Harel Levy.

But Dudi Sela then saw off Andreas Vinciguerra 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 11-9 to

level the tie.

Calls for special police tactics to be available across Sweden

SPT, (Särskild polistaktik), is a tactic where the police work with communication rather than physical measures to reduce the risk of conflicts during events like demonstrations.

Tactics include knowledge about how social movements function and how crowds act, as well as understanding how individuals and groups act in a given situation. Police may attempt to engage in collaboration and trust building, which they are specially trained to do.

Katharina von Sydow, chairwoman of the Police Association West Region, told Swedish Radio P4 West that the concept should exist throughout the country.

“We have nothing to defend ourselves within 10 to 15 metres. We need tools to stop this type of violent riot without doing too much damage,” she said.

SPT is used in the West region, the South region and in Stockholm, which doesn’t cover all the places where the Easter weekend riots took place.

In the wake of the riots, police unions and the police’s chief safety representative had a meeting with the National Police Chief, Anders Tornberg, and demanded an evaluation of the police’s work. Katharina von Sydow now hopes that the tactics will be introduced everywhere.

“This concept must exist throughout the country”, she said.

During the Easter weekend around 200 people were involved in riots after a planned demonstration by anti-Muslim Danish politician Rasmus Paludan and his party Stram Kurs (Hard Line), that included the burning of the Muslim holy book, the Koran.

Police revealed on Friday that at least 104 officers were injured in counter-demonstrations that they say were hijacked by criminal gangs intent on targeting the police.

Forty people were arrested and police are continuing to investigate the violent riots for which they admitted they were unprepared.

Paludan’s application for another demonstration this weekend was rejected by police.

In Norway on Saturday, police used tear gas against several people during a Koran-burning demonstration after hundreds of counter-demonstrators clashed with police in the town of Sandefjord.

READ MORE:

Url copied to clipboard!