[Anarchist protests mar EU summit meetings
in Gothenburg, Sweden, June, 15-16, 2001.
Read photo caption below]

EU Summit Braced for More Violence

GOTHENBURG, Sweden (Reuters) - Swedish police were braced for fresh protests on Saturday after rioting raged through a European Union summit, leaving three anarchist protesters shot and wounded and 12 policemen injured.
The center of the picturesque port of Gothenburg looked like a war-zone with wrecked shops and streets strewn with rocks and smoldering barricades after the latest bout of anti-capitalist violence to hit a major international meeting.
After nearly 12 hours of non-stop violence in which masked anarchists smashed shop windows and torched piles of tables and chairs, protests had died down by the early hours of Saturday and the city appeared calm.
But authorities were clearly anxious at the prospect of further violence on Saturday when EU leaders resume meeting.
``I am very worried about what might happen in the hours ahead. There are more demonstrations planned for tomorrow,'' Justice Minister Thomas Bodstrom told a late Friday briefing.
In the worst violence, three protesters were shot and wounded and were being treated later in a Gothenburg hospital, a spokesman told Reuters.
The protesters were believed to have been shot when trapped and outnumbered police fired in self-defense.
``Of the three, one is seriously hurt with wounds to the abdomen and is being operated on. The other two, including one with a gunshot wound to the thigh, were not seriously wounded,'' Pider Avall, spokesman for Sahlgrenska University Hospital, said.
Overshadowed by the mayhem outside, EU leaders continued their business agreeing that Ireland's shock rejection of the Nice Treaty on EU reform must not derail plans to admit up to 12 ex-communist and Mediterranean states over the next few years.
``There is a consensus...to send a signal to the applicant countries that we want to go ahead with the enlargement process,'' said Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson.
``Despite the Irish vote, there will be a signal that the enlargement process is irreversible,'' German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told reporters.
CLEAR TIMETABLE
Diplomats said most of the 15 members wanted to set a more precise timetable for admitting the first eastern candidates but Germany and France were holding out against fixing dates.
Persson said he hoped leaders would agree on a formula that would satisfy leaders of the dozen candidate countries when they meet for lunch on Saturday.
Reflecting the majority view, Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok said: ``We should declare our will to close the negotiations with the most advanced candidates in 2002 and thereby encourage them to hasten reforms.''
But diplomats quoted Schroeder as saying that fixing dates would send the wrong signal.
A senior EU diplomat said the Germans argued that setting an early target date could make it harder for Poland to qualify in the first entry wave -- a key German goal -- and leave insufficient time to reform agricultural policy.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said the leaders agreed that those applicants who had not completed ratification by 2004 could still take part in European Parliament elections that year. Their MEPs would take their seats upon accession.
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern told leaders his country needed an ``extended period of reflection'' after last week's stunning 54-46 percent defeat of the treaty negotiated in December to reform EU institutions to cope with new members.
He stressed that Ireland's ``no'' should not be seen as a vote against enlargement.
SHOTS FIRED
The rioting, much of it carried out by protesters masked and hooded to avoid identification, devastated the center of Sweden's second largest city and overwhelmed authorities. Some EU leaders were forced to flee their hotels.
Bodstrom said some 600 people were detained. He said 12 police were injured but he denied they lost control during the rioting, the biggest challenge the country's security forces had faced.
A hospital spokesman said over 50 people were treated for injuries.
A planned gala dinner for the heads of government had to be abandoned after police said they could not guarantee their safety. Leaders ate instead inside the heavily guarded summit conference complex.
Schroeder told reporters: ``At every international summit, you get desperados who are just out for violence without any political background.''
Danish Premier Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said it was a ``paradox'' to see young people rioting against a meeting ``where we are working toward a better world, better environment and better future for coming generations.''
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the rioters were ''misguided'' and argued that world trade was good for jobs and living standards.
Several leaders, including Schroeder, acknowledged that their citizens were among the rioters.
POLICE DEFENDED
Bodstrom rejected criticism that police lost control of the situation and defended the decision not to use tear gas or water cannon to put down the riots.
Plumes of smoke rose over the fashionable Kungsports Avenyn earlier as rampaging masked anarchists vandalized shop windows, piled tables and chairs from sidewalk cafes into makeshift barricades and set them ablaze. Some stores were looted.
Protesters hurled paving-stones and firecrackers at police, who responded with baton charges. Mounted police were dragged from their horses. Helicopters clattered overhead.
The fighting was far worse than clashes on Thursday in which 455 people were detained while President Bush (news - web sites) was meeting the EU leaders. Bush flew to Poland early on Friday.
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PHOTO CAPTION

A protester burns a European Union flag as demonstrators set up barricades against police during the EU Summit June 15, 2001. European Union leaders, besieged by rioting anarchists, sought to put the enlargement of their bloc to eastern Europe back on track after Ireland's shock rejection of the Nice Treaty. (Jerry Lampen/Reuters)
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