AUSTRALIA: An anti-globalisation demonstration turned violent again in Sydney yesterday as protesters at a meeting of the World Trade Organisation fought running battles with police.
Assistant police commissioner Mr Dick Adams said 35 people arrested would face charges of violent disorder, hindering police and trespassing.
"The actions of many of the protesters here were quite irresponsible given some of the scenes . . . We've even arrested one of the protesters who was carrying a knife into this demonstration," he said at Olympic Park, where the WTO conference was held.
Two police officers suffered minor injuries during clashes with demonstrators in front of a three-metre high steel fence erected 250 metres from the venue. Some 200 police formed a human shield 20 metres from the fence, creating a no-go zone between them and the barricade.
Small groups of protesters managed to reach less guarded parts of the fence and managed to knock some of it over. Nine were arrested while trying to move beyond the fence.
Sixteen protesters, 13 men and three women, were playing football when a police officer snatched their ball and another warned them to disperse or face arrest. They refused and officers charged the crowd, arresting all of them.
Protesters say the police used heavy-handed tactics, but Mr Adams said protesters were given warnings before arrests were made.
Among those arrested was a photographer from the Associated Press.
Lawyers and law students from the University of Technology, who were observing police behaviour during the demonstration, said some officers were not wearing police identification.