Thirty-six vehicles have been set alight in the last three nights in Berlin's Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain, Mitte, Neukoelln and Prenzlauer Berg districts, police said. Twenty-nine people were arrested two nights ago after officers stormed an occupied building and suspected arsonists went on a car-torching spree.
``Police investigators have taken up the probe and suspect a connection between the arson activity and the clearing of the occupied building,'' the police said in a statement on their Web site today.
The incidents coincide with a May 27-June 1 gathering of squatters protesting gentrification of their neighborhoods. Organizers, citing riots that broke out in March 2007 in Copenhagen after police raided a culture center, called on squatters worldwide to come to Berlin and ``make the streets unsafe,'' their Web site says.
About 300 police stormed an occupied house on May 27, deploying tear gas as squatters pelted them with bottles. Following the raid, about 150 protesters gathered on a square in Berlin's Mitte district to hold a rally, after which youths took the streets in four districts of the German capital and targeted Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Porsche models.
Two women, aged 19 and 22, were among suspected arsonists taken into custody two nights ago. The night before, three cars were burned.
Berlin's Interior Ministry released an annual report yesterday that showed the number of ``leftist-oriented'' politically motivated cases of arson jumped to 102 from 16 the year before, primarily tied to largely peaceful anti- globalization protests in the run-up to the Group of Eight summit in Heiligendamm on Germany's Baltic coast.
The Copenhagen raid also prompted protests in the German capital, placing the issue of squatting and public spaces at the center of anti-capitalist protests, the report said.
~ From: Bloomberg ~
No comments:
Post a Comment