German police defend detention of 1,057 at G8 (Extra)

Jun 8, 2007, 17:39 GMT

Rostock, Germany - German police kept 1,057 violent demonstrators in special detention centres during the G8 summit and were still holding 125 of them Friday, the summit security chief said in Rostock.

Police commander Knut Abramowski said the police strategy had 'basically' worked but admitted that he had been caught off-guard by demonstrators swarming through fields to the fence at the Heiligendamm compound.

'In country areas, police are inherently disadvantaged against highly mobile demonstrators,' he said.

Police planners had known that protest tactics might include dodging police roadblocks, but only knew 'at the last minute that this was actually happening.'

His remarks suggested it was too late at that stage to redeploy police, so the authorities had let the blockade of the G8 site proceed, as long as protesters kept peaceful.

He thanked peaceful protesters who 'in many cases intervened to de-escalate conflict' and 'came to the protection of police officers against the criminals.'

He defended the preventive detention of violent protesters saying he had to protect his officers.

Leftist groups have denounced the conditions in the holding centres and asserted that many inmates were only held for donning the attire of the Black Block, a loose formation of anarchists and communists in the crowds.

The radicals have been recognizable by black clothing and hoods, face-masks and sunglasses to hide their faces.

Leftists charged that protesters were lodged in 25-square-metre 'cages' with lights left on at night.

Wolfgang Grenz of the human rights organization Amnesty International said he had inspected the holding centres but did not consider them cruel for short periods of detention.

'They do look like cages, but there is no comparison whatever to the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay,' he said. Grenz said the allegations about the lights and that access to lawyers was limited were serious and would be checked.