By fwd, submitted by ab on Tue, 17/11/2009 - 21:47
Six arrested at NATO conference in Edinburgh
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Published Date: 17 November 2009
SIX people were arrested trying to gain access to the final day of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
The intruders were spotted walking through the front door of the Edinburgh International Conference Centre at around 8.30am this morning.
They were arrested for attempting to gain illegal entry to a secured building without an accredited pass.
A police spokesman said: "Lothian and Borders Police can confirm that six people were arrested when they attempted to disrupt the NATO Parliamentary Assembly at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
"Officers from Lothian and Borders Police were in attendance and quickly dealt with the situation, which did not impact on the assembly."
A number of other protesters were also dispersed after they were caught trying to chain themselves to the railings outside the building.
Foreign Secretary David Milliband and the Secretary General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen were due to speak following a minute's silence.
The protesters from Trident Ploughshares wore shirts emblazoned with the images of wounded and traumatised Afghan children, and recited the names of Afghan civilians who have died since the war began.
Police were seen filming the protestors as they carried out their direct action.
There have been several protests during the five days of the assembly, including a clash between police and a small group of "anti-militarist" protestors on Friday, and a rally of around 5,000 people led by Stop The War and the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament on Saturday.
They were arrested for attempting to gain illegal entry to a secured building without an accredited pass.
A police spokesman said: "Lothian and Borders Police can confirm that six people were arrested when they attempted to disrupt the NATO Parliamentary Assembly at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
"Officers from Lothian and Borders Police were in attendance and quickly dealt with the situation, which did not impact on the assembly."
A number of other protesters were also dispersed after they were caught trying to chain themselves to the railings outside the building.
Foreign Secretary David Milliband and the Secretary General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen were due to speak following a minute's silence.
The protesters from Trident Ploughshares wore shirts emblazoned with the images of wounded and traumatised Afghan children, and recited the names of Afghan civilians who have died since the war began.
Police were seen filming the protestors as they carried out their direct action.
There have been several protests during the five days of the assembly, including a clash between police and a small group of "anti-militarist" protestors on Friday, and a rally of around 5,000 people led by Stop The War and the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament on Saturday.
Comments
Re: EEN: Six arrested at NATO protest
By Anonymous
The "other group of activists that were dispersed" according to the sloppy journalism of the EEN were not trying to chain themselves to anything - they were the decoy action that attracted all the police attention so that the other action could take place at the conference centre.
The police were in complete dissaray that morning, and were completely unprepared, running around like headless chickens trying to catch the activists in the decoy action - leaving the front of the conference centre with a skeleton crew unable to stop a fine action from Trident Ploughshares.
As one activist involved said "whoever was in charge of security that morning is going to get a bollocking!".
Well done to all involved!