Madrid 30 11 00

Update re Police attack on peaceful anti third world debt march in Madrid on the 26th Nov 2000. Organisers reported that 26 people needed medical treatment and some 200 suffered cuts or bruises. In Congress Minister of Interior Jaime Mayor Oreja said that police action was “necessary” although some police officers probably went too far. There is confusion as to whither the police commander on the march has been dismissed or temporally suspended. There has been debate in Congress with some delegates alleging that the weekend’s violence by the police is not an isolated incident.

Paul Laverty wrote the following article as an update to his eye witness account.

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GEORGE ORWELL AND THE MINISTER of INTERIOR MAYOR OREJA

Minister of Interior Mayor Oreja told Congress (29 11 00) that the police action against anti third world debt demonstrators last Sunday was “necessary” although “some police probably acted in a improper manner.”

I was an eye witness and this is what I saw. Some 250 people, in an act of civil disobedience, ran to the Congress Building. About hundred sat on the steps while others who arrived later sat on the road in front and started chanting “Cancel the debt”. About 20 policeman made their way up behind the demonstrators sitting on the steps and some began to kick them on their backs. Several seconds later about 5 policeman started to pound protesters (sitting in front of them with their backs to them) with their batons with full force. Blows rained down on their backs, shoulders and heads. Other police then joined in.

To my amazement most of the young people didn’t run. They curled on the steps and tried to cover their heads. Those on the inside, and those on the street, whom the police couldn’t reach, held up their hands and started chanting “No shame....we are pacifists and we are human beings.”

Something quite remarkable then followed. Gradually the police ran out of steam and there were calls for silence among the groans and tears of some protesters who had been injured. One of the organisers, in negotiation with the police officer in charge, announced there were two options. They could read a statement about their reasons for opposing third world debt and then be allowed to head back and join the rest of the march on the official route, or they could stay seated where they were, continue the act of civil disobedience, and “suffer the consequences.” By this everybody clearly understood they would be beaten up.

What followed was almost surreal and I noticed was recorded on film. By this time all the protesters were sitting on the ground surrounded by police with their batons drawn. The organiser asked for a vote, (show of hands) and not surprisingly 95% chose to read the statement and then join the official route.

The statement was read and marchers stood up to leave. A few meters from me a young man in his thirties seemed to be grabbed at random and dragged off by the throat in a needlessly violent arrest. Everybody sat down again and refused to leave.

Two police came forward with riffles and started firing rubber balls into the crowd. One hit a girl in the head and the police charged again with their batons this time clearing the street.

In a civilised system protesters “suffer the consequences” of civil disobedience by being arrested and tried in the courts. In Spain that seems to mean you will be beaten repeatedly by trained policeman armed with batons or shot, like one woman, in the face with rubber ammunition.

Every policeman there behaved like an armed thug. If there is any credible justice system in this country prosecutors will examine the film footage and charge those assaulting peaceful seated protesters with assault. They should “suffer the consequences” of a country that respects the rule of law and then throw these men out of the police force and not let them anywhere near a gun or a baton. But it would be a mistake just to examine the identity of those on film. Who gave them the political space to act with such impunity before several cameras? The sacrificial lamb of some slightly dim police commander that “went too far” is an age old tactic and is not enough.

Interior Major Oreja has joined the long list of Minister of Interiors from around the world who from one side of their mouth call for tolerance, but from the other justify thuggery. I have one question for the Minster. Has he watched the film footage? If he has, and continues to justify it as “necessary” I hope he “suffers the consequences” of democratic public opinion and is forced to resign. He called the protesters attempt to hang an anti thirdworld debt poster on the steps of Congress “a gratuitous, absurd, and intolerable offence against democracy." Perhaps the souls of the five million children who die every year from preventable disease will think otherwise. At least George Orwell will be chuckling in his grave.

Paul Laverty

(Paul Laverty used to work as a lawyer in the UK. He spent three years working as a human rights lawyer in Central America. He presently works as a professional screenwriter and wrote the scripts for the last three films by English director Ken Loach.)