Police Confront G-8 Protesters in Scotland

EDINBURGH, Scotland – Police confronted demonstrators in Edinburgh and near a nuclear submarine base as protesters kept up their pressure ahead of the G-8 summit.

Police had a few scuffles in Edinburgh with black-clad anarchists and antiglobalization protesters in the streets of Edinburgh, where officers also stopped a self-styled “clandestine insurgent clown rebel army.”

No arrests were reported immediately.

At the Clyde Naval Base in southwestern Scotland, about 450 demonstrators blocked the road, vowing to shut down the Trident submarine base for the day.

The Trident protesters, who stage the event every year, enjoyed heightened coverage this year because of the large media presence in Scotland for the G-8.

“It is vitally important that people make the link between the industrial war machine and the poverty that so many people are suffering from around the world,” said protester Jenny Gaiawyn, 26.

Police were out in force in Edinburgh to stop a march by some 300 anarchists and opponents of globalization. At least two police helicopters could be seen overhead.

Helmeted police, including 20 on horseback, stopped the march in the city’s financial district, then slowly let them go one by one. Most of the marchers wore black, and some had masks.

There was some scuffling between protesters and police, but the police appeared firmly in control.

Police also stopped another group which styled itself as the

“We’re anticapitalists, we’re for trade justice,” said a woman with a painted face and clown costume who called herself Gen. Lovely.

Office workers leaned out of windows to watch as one clown waved a carrot at police horse, another tried to tickle their noses with a feather duster.

One protester held up a banner outside Starbucks saying “Abolish capitalism before it kills the planet.”

Some merchants had boarded up their windows before Saturday’s huge but peaceful anti-poverty march.

Janice Wilson, working at a flower shop off Princes Street, the main shopping street, said she wasn’t worried about the demonstrations.

“I think it has caused a lot of concern for the bigger chains because they thought they were going to be targeted,” Wilson said. “I wouldn’t have thought for one second they would have bothered us.”

Delivery driver Sean O’Brien, 29, was among those caught in the traffic jam building behind the protesters.

“I have already been here 40 minutes and counting,” he said. “I’m not really too fussed but I would much rather have got my work finished.”

Intense security was evident in Auchterarder, the town nearest the Gleneagles Hotel where the leaders will meet. Mounted police and a mobile surveillance camera unit were seen on the streets.

Minor roads were closed, and police roadblocks were set up around the hotel which is also protected by a six-foot (1.8-meter) tall steel mesh fence, a series of watchtowers and a network of surveillance cameras.

About 10,000 officers from all over the country are policing the event.