www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1487741,00.html
The Times and The Sunday Times electronic paper The Times and The Sunday Times electronic paper Britain February 17, 2005 Oil on troubled waters: a protester is led to a bus requisitioned by poli ce to hold them (RICHARD POHLE) Kyoto protest beaten back by inflamed petrol traders By Laura Peek and Liz Chong WHEN 35 Greenpeace protesters stormed the International Petroleum Exchang e (IPE) yesterday they had planned the operation in great detail. What they were not prepared for was the post-prandial aggression of oil t raders who kicked and punched them back on to the pavement. Total thugs, one protester said, rubbing his bruised skull. Ive never seen anyone less amenable to listening to our point of view. Another said: I took on a Texan Swat team at Esso last year and they wer e angels compared with this lot. Behind him, on the balcony of the pub opposite the IPE, a bleary-eyed trader, pint in hand, yelled: Sod off, Swampy. Greenpeace had hoped to paralyse oil trading at the exchange in the City near Tower Bridge on the day that the Kyoto Protocol came into force. T he Kyoto Protocol has modest aims to improve the climate and we need hug e aims, a spokesman said. Protesters conceded that mounting the operation after lunch may not have been the best plan. The violence was instant, Jon Beresford, 39, an el ectrical engineer from Nottingham, said. Then when we were on t he floor they tried to push huge filing cabinets on top of us to crush u s When a trader left the building shortly before 2pm, using a security swipe card, a protester dropped some coins on the floor and, as he bent down to pick them up, put his boot in the door to keep it open. Two minutes later, three Greenpeace vans pulled up and another 30 protest ers leapt out and were let in by the others. They made their way to the trading floor, blowing whistles and sounding f og horns, encountering little resistance from security guards. Rape alar ms were tied to helium balloons to float to the ceiling and create noise out of reach. The IPE conducts open outcry trading where deals are sh outed across the pit. By making so much noise, the protesters hoped to p aralyse trading. But they were set upon by traders, most of whom were under the age of 25. They were kicking and punching men and women indiscriminately, a phot ographer said. Mr Beresford said: They followed the guys into the lobby and kept kickin g and punching them there. Last night Greenpeace said two protesters were in hospital, one with a su spected broken jaw, the other with concussion. A spokeswoman from IPE said the trading floor reopened at 310pm. The fl oor was invaded by a small group of protesters, she said. Open outcry trading was suspended but electronic trading carried on. Eighteen police vans and six police cars surrounded the exchange and at l east 27 protesters were arrested. A small band blocked the entrance to t he building for the rest of the evening. Richard Ward, IPEs chief executive, said that the exchange would review security but denied that protesters had reached the trading floor. Howev er, traders, protesters and press photographers confirmed to The Times t hat the trading floor had been breached. Mr Ward would not discuss whether he would press charges, and said he wou ld not know until this morning if there had been any financial loss. Greenpeace later started a second protest at the annual dinner of the Ins titute of Petroleum at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane, in Centra l London. Greenpeace claimed that five campaigners had got into the Grea t Hall. About 30 protesters were outside the hotel, some blocking the fr ont entrance by sitting down and locking themselves together, while othe rs sounded klaxons and alarms. Climbers scaled scaffolding to unfurl a b anner reading, Climate change kills, oil industry parties.
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