Meanwhile, inside the red zone

Security cordon: Eerie calm rules in empty streets

Special report: globalisation

Ewen MacAskill in Genoa Saturday July 21, 2001 The Guardian

The shops were closed, the roads were empty and, in house after house, the shutters were fastened. The red zone, the security cordon created by Italian police and soldiers, looked yesterday as if it had been hit by a deadly virus. A plague of sorts had arrived and people had either fled or were staying in their homes.

The desire of the Italian authorities to protect world leaders from protesters effectively killed off all life in the six square-miles around Genoa's port.

Tony Blair flew into the port city in the morning, on to a landing strip surrounded by armoured cars, anti-missile batteries and hundreds of soldiers and police officers, making it easy to imagine he had been diverted to Macedonia or the Middle East.

The trip from the plane to the medieval Ducal Palace was devoid of the sight of a single member of Genoa's citizenry, other than the police and soldiers. The streets were eerily deserted, an effect that would have been even stronger had there been silence. But there is a constant roar of helicopters above the red zone.

The only movements within the zone are motorcades, buses carrying journalists and police and army vehicles.

Every alleyway leading from the town centre is sealed off, with 13ft steel fences topped by barbed wire. Some fences are welded into place, as are all manhole covers, to prevent access from the sewers. Thousands of police in helmets and flakjackets are gathered at every possible weak spot.

At no other summit has the divide between protesters and world leaders been so stark, increasing the pressure on politicians to come up with more than a meaningless communique. The only glimpse the leaders are likely to have of the teargas, water cannon and blood is on their televisions. At one point a 40ft-high tarpaulin has been erected to hide the demonstrators from the summit. Although they set cars on fire outside the red zone, the only smoke visible was from the chimneys of cruise ships tied up in the dock, where most officials and journalists are sleeping.

Inside the summit there are the usual perks for those attending: all the free food and drink they can consume. And, like a bad joke, mounds of Ferrero Rocher chocolate, the symbol of diplomatic junketing, are available at every table.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,525254,00.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), July 21, 2001