It has begun!

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,214 ... 55,00.html

Anti-Globalization Protestors Gather in Germany a sea of colorful protestors filled Rostock on Saturday. A sea of colorful protestors filled Rostock on Saturday. Tens of thousands of protestors gathered in the northeastern German town of Rostock on Saturday to show their opposition to next week's G8 summit of the world's wealthiest nations.

Organizers said they were expecting 100,000 people from anti-poverty and anti-globalization groups to demonstrate in the nearest larger city to the luxury coastal resort of Heiligendamm, where the leaders will gather from Wednesday.

Early protestors in Rostock: Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Early protestors in Rostock: "Powerful but peaceful"

Police however said they believed only 30,000 people would take part in the demonstration.

The German authorities have mounted an extensive security operation, with up to 16,000 police on duty.

The protest in Rostock kicks off a week of protests against the summit, with militant groups threatening to block roads around Rostock airport from Wednesday to prevent the leaders and their delegations from reaching the summit venue.

Militants hijacking protests?

Windows in Rostock's main shopping street were protected with boards prior to the demonstrationBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Windows in Rostock's main shopping street were protected with boards prior to the demonstration

German police fear the protests will be hijacked by militants bent on causing violence and the authorities are hoping to avoid a repeat of the bloody scenes at past G8 meetings, most notably in the Italian city of Genoa in 2001 when a protestor was shot dead by police during riots.

The atmosphere in Rostock ahead of the demonstration was calm, according to police and AFP news service reporters at the scene.

Fears of unrest were heightened when demonstrators at a meeting of European and Asian foreign ministers in the northern city of Hamburg this week clashed with police who used tear gas and batons to disperse the crowd.

One of the organizers of Saturday's demonstration, Ines Brembach, said she was confident that the groups taking part would protest peacefully.

She said they would call on the G8 nations to keep "their broken promises to the world's poor.

"We are expecting a powerful but peaceful demonstration," she told AFP. "The G8 leaders should stop telling us they are trying to help Africa when they are some of the biggest producers of the weapons that are destroying African agriculture."

Neo-Nazi march banned

A planned march of Germany's biggest neo-Nazi group to coincide with the Rostock demonstration was banned by a court on Saturday because of the risk of violence.

Neo-Nazis will try to join the main protestsBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Neo-Nazis will try to join the main protests

A court in Greifswald said the risks of violence posed by the anti-immigration National Democratic Party (NPD) "could not be managed because of the substantial deployment of security forces for the G8 summit."

A party spokesman said that instead of marching through the eastern city of Schwerin, its members would try to join the Rostock protest.

All around the summit venue in the northern German resort of Heiligendamm, tented camps have been springing up and anti-globalization groups are planning an alternative summit.

While protestors have promised to disrupt the journeys of the leaders to Heiligendamm, most G8 participants are expected to arrive at the summit venue by helicopter.

As is now customary for G8 summits, the luxury beachfront hotel where US President George W. Bush and the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia will gather has been surrounded by a heavily guarded fence topped with barbed wire.

An underwater barrier has also been erected to prevent craft approaching the hotel.