Riot police arrest 23 in night raid on peaceful protest against the destruction of Zagreb pedestrian zone

Zagreb, Croatia, 11 February 2010

At 03.30 this morning around 100 riot police arrested 23 activists from Green Action and the Right to the City initiative in Zagreb, Croatia. The raid took place just hours after 4000 people turned out in snowy conditions to protest against turning part of the pedestrian zone into a ramp for an underground garage planned as part of the Cvjetni shopping centre and luxury flats development in the old part of Zagreb.

The operation aimed to remove the accommodation container which the groups had put on Varsavska Street pedestrian zone as a 24-hour info-point in order to block the beginning of works on the ramp, which is still under legal dispute. Activists inside of the container and on the roof peacefully resisted removal by locking themselves together using arm tubes, and were arrested after the fire brigade cut the tubes.

Around 50 more activists blocked the road exits of the lorry carrying the container but were also removed by the riot police. The police also hacked to pieces a five-metre high wooden trojan horse which had been brought to the site for the previous evening¹s protest as a symbol of private interests and corruption masquerading as urban redevelopment.

More at http://www.zelena-akcija.hr/content/view/1025/531/lang,en/