Monday August 8, 2005
The Guardian

London's over-stretched police officers will impose an exclusion zone on parts of the Docklands, in east London, up to 48 hours before the start of Europe's largest arms fair.
Routes leading to the Docklands ExCeL centre will be closed to demonstrators amid growing concern about the implications of policing the three-day event at the same time as maintaining the current high terrorist alert throughout the capital.

Anti-arms protesters, having caused significant disruption in the vicinity in previous years, have already pledged to go one step further and to force the cancellation of the Defence Systems and Equipment International exhibition (Desi).

On its website, the organisation Disarm Desi promises "a week of action and resistance to the arms fair and the unjust global system that supports it".
There is also growing political opposition to the exhibition, dubbed the "death fair" by critics.

Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, has branded the event "disgraceful" and bemoaned his inability to ban it.

"It is wrong for police resources to be diverted to this event and a travesty that the cost should be borne by Londoners and not the event organisers. Such events are a disgrace and ought to be denounced by all Londoners," he said.

Sir Robin Wales, mayor of Newham - the borough in which the fair will take place - has urged ExCeL to back out of hosting the fair. He has been trying to lure other events to ExCeL, such as the Boat Show and the Motor Show, to allow it to recoup lost income.

"I oppose the arms fair being held in Newham. I always have and I always will," he said. "My priority will be ensuring that the people of this borough do not suffer because of it."

The planned exclusion zone, or Public Protection Route Closure, is likely to come into force on September 11, two days before the start of the event. It is likely to encompass the dockside around ExCeL, the footbridge across Royal Victoria Dock and routes to the centre from the local train station.

"It is difficult to see the decision to have the arms fair here and now as anything but a provocative act," said Jenny Jones, a Green party representative on the London assembly and the Metropolitan Police Authority. "Sealing off the area so that people cannot demonstrate is not the right way to handle this. If people can't demonstrate, we have no way of judging the level of concern."

The organisers, Spearhead Exhibitions, were unavailable for comment.