Norway protests NATO: 260 arrested

by Kaitlin | April 27, 2007 at 12:41 pm | 420 views | add comment

Norwegian students and activists protesting a NATO dinner last night faced tear gas and arrest after breaking through barriers police put up around the City Hall, where the dinner was taking place. The tear gassing resulted in protesters throwing eggs and stones; over 260 people were arrested. It's not yet clear whether charges will be laid.

A peaceful protest demonstration began on Thursday evening at 6:30 p.m., with about 800 people and several organizations taking part cooperatively. About 200 of these are believed to be from the radical youth organization Blitz.

After about 15 minutes the demonstrators began to march towards the City Hall, where a gala dinner in connection with the NATO meeting of foreign ministers was to be held later in the evening. The protestors carried banners with slogans like "Stop NATO", "Norwegian weapons kill children" and "Norway out of Afghanistan".

More demonstrators joined the march as it approached City Hall, and then the trouble started.

There had been warnings of illegal action on Thursday night and Oslo police were armed with machine guns and had formed a ring around City Hall. Police also boosted security around the US and Israeli embassies.