Amnesty Criticises Police Violence At Bern Gaza Demo

“Even though one group caused considerable damage to property, the police reaction was characterised by serious mistakes,” lawyer Alicia Giraudel said in a statement on Tuesday. Peaceful demonstrators and bystanders were injured. Volunteer rescue workers treated at least 326 people.

In particular Amnesty International criticised the kettling strategy – in which protestors are encircled – in its report: it was carried out suddenly and with the use of force without clear warning. As a result, the crowd was unable to disperse. In addition, people in need of protection were endangered by the long duration.

+ Thousands join pro-Palestinian protest in Bern amid clashes with police

The organisation also alleged shortcomings in police communication. Announcements could only be heard directly on Parliament Square, and contradictory instructions caused confusion: first, those present were directed to the railway station via Schauplatzgasse, then via Spitalgasse. The kettling finally took place in the former.

In response to an enquiry from Amnesty, the Bern cantonal police stated that they had announced the deployment of the police. The statement by commander Christian Brenzikofer is available to Keystone-SDA. According to the statement, one of the aims of the kettling of the“militant and violent groups” was to enable the peaceful participants to hold a rally.

According to the statement, criticism levelled at the police will also be taken into account at debriefings. Amnesty International welcomes this initiative as a“first positive step” but is calling for a further investigation into the operation.

The unauthorised pro-Palestine demonstration on October 11 led to serious riots, with rioters causing millions in property damage. The police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon, among other things. According to the police, 18 officers were injured.

The police checked more than 500 people during the riots. No one has yet been charged, the Bern cantonal police said on enquiry. The investigation is ongoing.

Adapted from German by AI/ts

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at ...

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo certified by the Journalism Trust Initiati

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at ....