Скачать или смотреть USA: SEATTLE: ANTI WTO DEMONSTRATION/RIOTS WRAP

(1 Dec 1999) English/Nat
Authorities have declared a civil emergency in the U-S city of Seattle after riot police battled with demonstrators who took their sometimes violent protests to the street.
The protesters' actions had forced a shut down in the opening session of the World Trade Organisation's conference.
National guardsmen were called in to restore order in Seattle on Tuesday night as a handful of militant demonstrators ran riot in the city centre.
The protestors had earlier defied police, lit fires, smashed windows and scrawled graffiti in a rampage through the city streets.
Most of the tens of thousands of people - as many as 40-thousand - who thronged downtown to protest the WTO's power
and secrecy were peaceful, but the few exceptions were enough to throw the city into chaos.
Mayor Paul Schell declared a civil emergency and imposed an overnight curfew.
Washington State Governor Gary Locke said he decided to call in as many as 200 unarmed members of the National Guard and up to 300 state troopers to provide relief to weary Seattle police.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We have called out and activated the national guard. We're very concerned about public safety. We're very concerned that the Seattle police department and the state patrol officers that are already on the scene as well as the county police officers have the help that they need in order to keep the peace, to keep things calm and so that no one is truly injured."
SUPER CAPTION: Gary Locke, Governor, Washington
Charlene Barshefsky, the U-S Trade Representative who last month brokered a historic free trade agreement with China, said she sympathised with the views of the protestors but not with the methods of a violent fringe.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"With respect to the protesters, this administration has a fundamental sympathy with the views expressed by those protesters who came peacefully to Seattle, who protested peacefully, and as I said peacefully and quite effectively and who are voicing indeed the same concerns the administration itself has raised over the last five plus years."
SUPER CAPTION: Charlene Barshefsky, US Trade Representative
WTO director-general Mike Moore also condemned the violence.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"This conference will be a success, the issues are far too important to be ignored. The United States like all free nations, has a history of peaceful protests. Peaceful protests - I know because I've been a member of many of them - often lead to important reforms and social achievements, such protests have been instrumental in leading to a process of dialogue and engagement. And they have, many times throughout history, paved the way for achievement. But violence and destructive behaviour would not to be part of that process. Violence is not the way to settle differences."
SUPER CAPTION: Mike Moore, WTO director-general
The protesters are unhappy with the Geneva-based organisation that sets the rules for global trade.
They accuse it of too often only considering the needs of giant multinational corporations at the expense of protecting the environment and worker rights.
Once police and the curfew cleared downtown streets of protesters, street sweepers and work crews worked through the night, clearing debris and boarding up broken windows.

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