Die Innenminister der EU haben die unterschiedlichen (Polizei-)Methoden angepasst, mit denen sie Oppositionelle generell und Globalisierungsgegner speziell beobachten, kontrollieren und bekämpfen können.
M.R.
"EU's secret network" to spy on
anti-capitalist protesters
By Stephen Castle in Brussels
Independent News
20 August 2001
European leaders have ordered police and intelligence agencies to co-ordinate
their efforts to identify and track the anti-capitalist demonstrators whose
violent protests at recent international summits culminated in the shooting
dead by police of a young protester at the Genoa G8 meeting last month.
The new measures clear the way for protesters travelling between European
Union countries to be subjected to an unprecedented degree of surveillance.
Confidential details of decisions taken by Europe's interior ministers at
talks last month show that the authorities will use a web of police and judicial
links to keep tabs on the activities and whereabouts of protesters. Europol,
the EU police intelligence-sharing agency based in The Hague that was set up
to trap organised criminals and drug traffickers, is likely to be given a key
role.
The plan has alarmed civil rights campaigners, who argue that personal information
on people who have done no more than take part in a legal demonstration may
be entered into a database and exchanged.
Calls for a new Europe-wide police force to tackle the threat from hardline
anti-capitalists were led after the Genoa summit by Germany's Interior Minister,
Otto Schily. Germany has long pushed for the creation of a Europe-wide crime-fighting
agency modelled on the FBI.
Germany's EU partners rejected Mr Schily's call, judging that a new force
to combat political protest movements was too controversial, but ministers agreed
to extend the measures that can be taken under existing powers. Central to the
new push is the secretive Article 36 committee (formerly known as the K4 committee)
and the Schengen Information System, both of which allow for extensive contact
and data sharing between police forces.
Under the new arrangements, European governments and police chiefs will:
* Set up permanent contact points in every EU country to collect, analyse
and exchange information on protesters;
* Create a pool of liaison officers before each summit staffed by police from
countries from which "risk groups" originate;
* Use "police or intelligence officers" to identify "persons
or groups likely to pose a threat to public order and security";
* Set up a task force of police chiefs to organise "targeted training"
on violent protests.
The new measures will rely on two main ways of exchanging police information.
The Schengen Information System, which provides basic information, and a supporting
network called Sirene Supplementary Information Request at the National Entry.
This network (of which Britain is a member) allows pictures, fingerprints and
other information to be sent to police or immigration officials once a suspect
enters their territory. Each country already has a Sirene office with established
links to EU and Nordic law enforcement agencies.
Civil liberties campaigners are dismayed by the plan. Tony Bunyan, editor
of Statewatch magazine, said: "This will give the green light to Special
Branch and MI5 to put under surveillance people whose activities are entirely
democratic."
Nicholas Busch, co-ordinator of the Fortress Europe network on civil liberties
issues, added: "People who have done nothing against the law ought to be
able to feel sure they are not under surveillance ... By criminalising whole
political and social scenes you fuel confrontation and conflict."
Thomas Mathieson, professor of sociology of law at the University of Oslo, said police could have access to "very private information" about people's religion, sex lives and politics. "It is a very dangerous situation from the civil liberties point of view," he said."
(Put in the internet by M. Reichl 31.08.2001)