China protest policing 'unlawful'

Police arrest a pro-Tibet protester near Downing Street

The Metropolitan Police has admitted that some officers broke the law in their handling of demonstrators during the state visit of Chinese President Jiang Zemin last October.

People who tried to protest about China's human rights record had complained about police heavy handedness, which kept them away from President Jiang.

The Met's own review defended the action. How come?

Free Tibet Campaign

In a High Court case brought by the Free Tibet Campaign, the police agreed to a declaration that "it was unlawful for individual officers to remove banners and flags from people solely on the basis that they were protesting against the Chinese regime on The Mall on 19 October 1999".

Free Tibet Campaign director Alison Reynolds said: "This is a victory for the democratic right to peaceful protest in this country - something sadly lacking in Chinese-occupied Tibet.

Jiang Zemin is known to be sensitive about protests

"It stretches credibility to ask us to believe that all the officers in The Mall spontaneously made the same mistake by removing flags and banners."

An additional carefully-worded Met Police declaration stated "that it would be unlawful to position police vans in front of protesters if the reason for doing so was to suppress free speech".

This reflected the Met's denial that vans were used to "mask" demonstrators outside Buckingham Palace on 19 October and outside the Chinese embassy on 21 October.

Apology

Assistant Commissioner Ian Johnston, who handled the criticism of the Metropolitan Police at the time of the visit, said the police "didn't get it entirely right" and pledged to do better in the future.

He said: "Because we didn't support [our officers] properly with decent briefings for the event over the complexity of the by-laws and the Vienna Convention, individuals made some decisions which we accept entirely were not right and we have apologised for that."

He did not accept the criticism that vans had been placed to block the views of protesters.

"We put vans in the way only when there was a risk of demonstrators breaching the lines or security and public order issues," he said.

He said the Met was seeking to restore the public's faith in its handling of such events, particularly in the light of Monday's anti-capitalism demonstrations, which escalated into violence.

'Political purposes'

Former Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Mike Bennett said he believed that instructions to block the anti-Chinese demonstrations came from politicians.

He told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "This action is rare in this country and it was taken for political purposes, without a shadow of a doubt.

"I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Foreign Office didn't give some form of instruction to senior police officers which has been mishandled all the way down."

Protesters also gathered in Cambridge

He added that it was unfortunate that police on the ground had been criticised for their actions, when the blame should have been placed at a higher level.

Civil liberties lawyer Louise Christian said: "I am concerned about the lengths the government will go to protect itself from embarrassment."

The Foreign Office however said that while there were discussions between them and the police prior to President Jiang's visit, the handling of demonstrations was a matter for officers on the ground.

President Jiang's visit - the first by a Chinese leader - was meant to mark improving relations between the UK and China following the handover of Hong Kong in 1997.