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Italians block motorway in French rail link demo

Protesters in northern Italy held rallies and staged sit-ins on Wednesday against land seizures for the construction of a controversial high-speed rail link between Lyon and Turin.

Published: 11 April 2012 15:21 CEST

Around 100 students blocked a motorway close to Turin, forcing police to re-route traffic. Another group surrounded the area where work on the rail link is expected to start in the Val di Susa region in the Alps.

Workers are preparing to dig an exploratory tunnel in a four-year project.

Authorities have taken over a total of seven hectares (17 acres) under a scheme in which the owners of the land are paid rent during the duration of the project and will then be returned their property at the end.

The total cost of the planned link is €20 billion and would shorten the journey from Paris to Milan to just four hours compared to seven hours now.

It has sparked opposition among some local residents who say it is too costly and could damage the environment, while supporters say it is a strategic project for Europe that will reduce road traffic by 700,000 trucks a year.

The rail link is currently expected to be completed in 2023.

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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.

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