Police were overwhelmed by G-8 rioting
Police in Geneva were inadequately prepared to cope with the violence surrounding last year’s G-8 meeting in nearby Evian, an investigating commission has found.
A report blamed a lack of coordination among security forces, and recommended that a special organisation be created to handle such operations in the future.
The four-person commission was set up to examine the handling of security during last June’s summit, after mobs ran riot through Geneva, destroying property and terrifying local residents.
By contrast, said the commission, police in neighbouring France were fully in control of the security situation in Evian, where leaders of the world’s seven most industrialised nations and Russia were meeting.
The 80-page report criticised the federal government for its “passive and relatively late” security preparations ahead of the summit, saying it had “long thought the G-8 meeting would resemble another Davos” – the annual summit of the World Economic Forum, usually held in that Swiss resort.
Sealed off
It added that the government had assumed the summit would affect mainly France. In the event, French police sealed off the lakeside town of Evian, leaving Geneva and Lausanne to bear the brunt of protesters’ ire.
The commission said better cooperation among the cantons – whose police forces operate autonomously – and a common risk analysis would have demonstrated the need and allowed time to enlist support from France in managing the security situation.
The report says the main demonstration, on June 1, was handled well, with impressive coordination among the authorities, police and protest organisers.
Where the security forces failed was during the night before the summit started, when vandals ran riot through Geneva. The commission said police intervened only after a long delay, once mobs had taken over the city centre and set buildings on fire.
Clashes
Police were also unable to contain the violence that broke out after the main demonstration on Sunday. “Police lost the initiative and were overwhelmed” by clashes with militant groups, commented the report.
It also took police several hours to dislodge demonstrators who occupied the city’s Mont Blanc bridge on the day after the summit, although the report conceded that obstacles and security fences strewn across the streets had impeded the police’s ability to control the area.
The commission said the failures pointed to a need for a coherent nationwide strategy to deal with similar events in the future.
It recommended the creation of a body which would coordinate security among the cantons, and urged the setting up of a special fund to finance such operations.
For their part, the Geneva cantonal authorities said the security forces did not have the training or experience to deal with such situations, and recommended that special police units be trained specifically to cope with operations of this nature.
swissinfo with agencies
A four-person commission was set up in July 2003 to investigate police handling of security for the summit.
The commission said French police had the situation fully under control on their side of the border.
The Swiss government was criticised for underestimating the scale of security needed.
Geneva bore the brunt of riots during the summit, with mobs destroying property, setting fire to buildings and terrifying local residents.
The commission said the failures pointed to a need for a coherent nationwide strategy to deal with similar events in the future.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.