By ab, submitted on Tue, 17/11/2009 - 21:39
A small protest against NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen's lecture titled “The Future of Peace Support Operations”, happened onTuesday 17^th November at the Old College. The about twenty protesters were fenced in by the police on the pavement outside the University of Edinburgh building.
Police cited health and safety as reason for fencing in the protesters though the police first wanted to fence the protesters in in the courtyard - no busy traffic there! More health & safety concerns for the NATO secretary general it seems.
Students identity was checked by police on the way into university.
Comments
more pics of NATO lecture protest
By maryjka
17/11/2009
No platform for murderers. A visual documentation.
img21.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php
img696.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php
[if somebody wonders- i'm on the side of humans]
more pics of NATO lecture protest
By human
sorry, here is everythings together: img199.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php
Re: Pics of NATO lecture protest
By Anonymous
What is not mentioned in this article:
The police have still not learned from the tragic events of the G20. Protesters were originally in the courtyard of the building, but when they refused to be kettled in a cage in the corner, they were physically assaulted by the lothian borders equivalent of the Territorial Support Group thugs (who killed Ian Tomlinson) and were dragged and thrown over barriers and down steps until they were in a fenced kettle outside. They were then told they couldnt leave, not after the lecture was over, not to go to the toilet, and not to go somewhere less bloody cold as the temperature dropped.
The police do have a new tactic since the g20 - the plain clothes "protest facilitators" - bullshitters who claim they believe in what you are doing and want to "help you protest". In reality they stall you, and lead you on so that you are distracted from the real problem - that you tried to have a protest, but they put you in a fenced-off kettle surrounded by thugs in uniform.
When there are racist attacks in my neighbourhood, the police do fuck all - but when some boss from NATO comes the L&B police roll out the red carpet. And dont forget - NATO isnt doing a good job for us, or Afghanistan. They are an organisation that has installed a brutal undemocratic government of rapists, mysogynists and warlords in Afghanistan to the detriment of the people there.
The nato secretary general was telling a hall full of people about "peace operations" - the new double speak for a neo-imperialist war. He is a criminal for what NATO has done in Afghanistan, and yet it was protesters who have never killed, injured, or bombed anyone who were criminalised.