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IMC UK Reporter seriously injured in Geneva

ronya | 02.06.2003 10:23 | Evian G8 | London | World

Photographer and IMC UK volunteer, Guy Smallman, seriously injured in Geneva on Sunday 1st of June.

A group of peaceful demonstrators, consisting of a variety of non-governmental organisations, children, elderly and disabled people were attacked by German riot police yesterday, Sunday 1st of June at approx 16.00, as they returned from an anti-G8 demonstration in Geneva.

One photographer accompanying the demonstrators was seriously injured and a number of others received minor injuries from concussion grenades fired at close range.

The demonstrators were marching on a main road out of Geneva, returning from a large peaceful demonstration against the G8 summit, when German police, part of a 1,000-strong contingent 'loaned' to Switzerland for the duration of the G8 summit, arrived on the scene screaming aggressively into their megaphones and blocking off all the streets, trapping the returning demonstrators and passers-by in one place.

The police, seemingly out of control, armed and in full riot gear, began insulting, provoking, shouting and shooting teargas and concussion grenades at people for no apparent reason.

As the situation escalated and a group of ten Black Bloc and Turkish Communist party members began throwing stones at the police from further down the street, three Swiss representatives from an anti-G8 organisation tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the police.

Officers proceeded to charge in the direction of the stone-throwers, swarming in from the side streets and forcing the returning demonstrators, passers-by and others including the IMC UK reporter to run for cover. As they tried to get out of the firing-line police fired a volley of 20-30 concussion grenades in their direction.

Guy Smallman, a photographer from Brixton and volunteer with Indymedia UK, was hit in the back of the leg by a grenade fired at close range, which tore off the back of his left leg beneath the knee.

German police continued to violently attack peaceful demonstrators who were trying to calm them down saying "stop we have people seriously injured here" and asking to negotiate with the officer in command.

It took a good hour for an ambulance to arrive, during which police kept shouting abusive remarks and insults at the injured IMC reporter, who was being tended to by demonstrators.

Corporate press, including reporters for Reuters and Agence France Presse who were are the scene were unable to explain why police had attacked the demonstrators.

Medics at Geneva's main hospital confirmed that a large number of people had been seriously injured by concussion grenades over the past days.

UPDATE:
Current condition of injured reporter:
After a two-hour operation in Geneva on Sunday, in which a medical team tried to reconstruct the calf muscle on his left leg, Guy Smallman is now in a stable condition but is expected to require a series of operations in order to graft nerves, muscle and skin back onto his leg.

FURTHER INFORMATION: Guardian article, 2 June:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,968618,00.html (falsely gives Guy's name as 'Dan')

ronya

Comments

Hide the following 15 comments

Call for translation en->ge

02.06.2003 12:37

 http://www.free.de/Zope/linksrhein/imc/Translations/1054557229/index_html

Coordination of Translation with the german Translation-Tool at  http://www.free.de/Zope/linksrhein/imc

If you are going to do this translation write something like "I'll do it" in the comment and if you finished the translation write "Done" as comment.

Thanx!

LinksRhein
mail e-mail: www-de@lists.indymedia.org
- Homepage: http://www.free.de/Zope/linksrhein/imc


Speedy recovery

02.06.2003 14:46

Lets hope Guys makes a speedy recovery. I texted him today and he says hes in pain but ok. I am a corporate staff press photographer and have worked with Guy in Prague and Genoa in similar difficult circumstances. His recent joint exhibition with Paul Matsson held recently at The Foundry show the lengths and determination that these reporters like him try and provide a different truth to the corporate press. Keep up the good work!

Tony70


Speedy recovery for Guy

02.06.2003 14:50

Lets hope Guys makes a speedy recovery. I texted him today and he says he's in pain but ok. I am a corporate staff press photographer and have worked with Guy in Prague and Genoa in similar difficult circumstances. His recent joint exhibition with Paul Matsson held recently at The Foundry show the lengths and determination that these reporters like him try and provide a different truth to the corporate press. Keep up the good work!

tony


get well soon, mate

02.06.2003 15:03

i can't believe the comment above
you twat...kenny

get well soon , Guy...
my thoughts are with all those people out there
fed up with this ridiculous planet
and prepared to do something about it...
i feel proud of you all...

and get well soon , please kenny mullen...
you are obviously suffering from
some sort of mental illness,

love captain wardrobe

captain wardrobe


GUY SMALLMAN

02.06.2003 18:54

Hopefully, he'll be able to get a big fat cheque out of this, and if I know Guy, he'll be off to get a brand shiny new Leica to continue the good works he's achieved so far.
Get well soon love,
me and Clay send our love to you

Denise

Denise and Clay
mail e-mail: denise@redbricks.org.uk


kenny is dumb

02.06.2003 19:17

I was coming back from the demonstration as i got blocked by the police with others with no apparent reasons. The road the police had blocked was the normal return road to Geneva, not an alternative way. People blocked were not black blocks (sic) or anything violent. There were even families trapped. Police shouted in swiss-german then didn't move for ten minutes. They finally backed up, but the others demonstrators who were coming back from the demo after us got increasingly angry at the police presence, some stones were thrown (approximatively 5) and a weak pseudo-barricade was set up by some young excited stupids. Then suddenly, the police rushed with their car from the other end of the street, got out of the car and threw stunt-grenade, creating some panic movements, people started to run. That's when the journalist got hurt. It has nothing to do with a provocation from his side. Children were there and could also have been injured. This episode would have been solved easily, if the police had backed up instead of creating a tense climate. Is it really the best thing to do to avoid violent action than to make some spectacular police moves as a kind of way to show the television that police is here, everything is in order?

jonas


Team coverage

03.06.2003 02:32

Hard core, mahn ... some folks'll do anything to get the good drugs! ;-)
But seriously: enjoy what morphine you get, the cut back surprisingly quickly.
FWIW: I was stumping up and down the stairs in QC 2 weeks after getting casts off my feet ... you've got the bit in your teeth now, chum
But seriously: I saw a couple of crews take some thumps at A20, and I'm sure there's been worse. Bla-bla-blah we aren't supposed to become the story ... I side-stepped a plastic bullet at shoulder height clearing streets for med-evac at 2AM ... we should seriously think about a "no solo" principle, if only to get coverage of whatever the fuck goes down.
Hang in there budy ... nurses are very very fine people.
!Venceremos

hfx_ben
- Homepage: http://chebucto.ns.ca/Current/P7/blog/blogger.html


Time to fire

03.06.2003 08:16

I think its time to fire some german police from the swiss streets. If its true that the police continued to fire after there were extream injuries, then they broke the orders of fire. They MUST give help to those who are hurt before firing again. This is part of the idiocy of using large scale professional police forces. They tend to form armies that must have control. I say that this is shown in demostrations around the world when police shut down demostrations with force.

Peter


It was not the German police - it was Swiss

03.06.2003 11:54

I spoke to a colleague from Guy and here is his statement:

" I spoke to Guy Smallman over the phone in hospital today and it turns out it was indeed the Zurich police who did the shooting. Their shields said
'Polizei' so he assumed they were German, as there was a report that German riotpolice had been called in by the Swiss."

Lutz Fischmann
General Manager FREELENS - Association of photojournalists - Germany

Lutz


A Real War Hero

03.06.2003 16:38

We hear all the time how we should admire those who put their lives on the line in military duties, to regard them as heroes.

How much more so should we regard someone who goes into similar dangerous projects armed only with a rope and a banner.

I am writing three months after seeing my wife's life slip away, after she suffered a single fracture in far more mundane circumstances and her heart stopped and landed her in a coma during surgery. Jokes about morphine should be tempered with the realities of what it, combined with anesthetics, can do to one's breathing ability. I hope this man has far better luck and he comes through his multiple injuries without joining the unjustly regarded ranks of the disabled.

My best wishes to all direct actors.

Avery


Background pics and reports

04.06.2003 13:24


Pics and report from guy about what the police were doing when they attacked him:
 http://www.uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=70799&group=webcast

Pics of guys horrible injuries and quick report
 http://www.uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=70794&group=webcast

imcista


avery

04.06.2003 18:14

Avery, Thats so sad about your wife. You must feel terrible :( I hope your OK.

I think you'll find the comments on morphine and the nurse are just a friendly-macho way of saying "cheer up big fella. Things 'll turn out all right". :) No ones taking the reality lightly. Just sprayin some sunshine.

mr invisible


Police didn't know Martin was there!

05.06.2003 04:35

Below is a response from the Embassy of Switzerland in Australia. I trust that Martin has a good lawyer and access to video tape evidence that will disprove the ridiculous allegations that the police did not know anyone was on the end of the rope.

Good luck and speedy recovery,

Russell


From Embassy of Switzerland, Canberra, Australia:
Thank you for expressing your concerns about the case of Mr Martin Shaw, a British national who was injured during aprotest organised in Switzerland against the G8 Summit in Evian.

The Swiss authorities are concerned about the tragic incident. In accordance with the Swiss Penal Code, an investigation has been launched ex officio by the Examining Magistrate of the district in question in order to
establish the responsibilities of all the persons involved.

According to the preliminary findings, it has been ascertained that from his position, the police officer could not possibly have realised that people were suspended from the rope at the moment it was cut. Mr Shaw, the
demonstrator, fell some twenty metres into the riverbed. He was immediately rescued, treated on the spot and then transported to the University Hospital of Canton Vaud. According to the medical services he is seriously
injured, but his life is not in danger.

The demonstration in which Mr Shaw was participating was not authorised. The Cantonal Police was obliged to intervene to disperse the crowd, inasmuch as it was disrupting the traffic on the motorway. The investigation now in progress will last for several weeks and will also consider the responsibility of the demonstrators who took considerable risks and also potentially endangered the lives of others by blocking the motorway traffic.

The findings will be published on the website of the Cantonal Police of Vaud
(www.dse.vd.ch).

Russell


picture of Guy's leg

05.06.2003 14:57

Please see this URL (picture at the bottom) :

 http://www.indymedia.ch/fr/2003/06/10881.shtml

Taz


get well soon

06.06.2003 21:37

hi Guy, hope youre doing ok and get large amounts of cash out of the police..
come and see us in bromley when ure recovered
Anticapitalist greetings from Amanda, Sharon, Heather and Bea (Bromley CND and SWP)

Bea
mail e-mail: bealeal13@yahoo.com