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Unprecedented security for G20 summit

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, April 1, IRNA – Final preparations were being put in place for Thursday’s G20 summit amid the launch of Britain's biggest ever policing operation with protesters threatening two days of chaos and disruption to coincide with the arrival of world leaders.

Thousands of demonstrators were taking part in a series of protests Wednesday to bring the financial area of the City of London to a halt with a ‘meltdown’ map of potential targets, including merchant and high street banks, auditors, law firms, energy firms, financial associations, arms traders and commerce groups.

Peace campaigners also gathered outside the US Embassy in the British capital to hand in a letter to President Barack Obama, who arrived on Tuesday evening to hold bilateral talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown ahead of the summit.

“Yes we can. Yes we can end the siege of Gaza and free Palestine, get the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, make jobs not bombs, abolish nukes, and stop arming Israel," the letter said, echoing Obama’s election slogan.

In the City of London, four marches - known as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - converged on the Bank of England, while environmentalists "swooped" on the European Climate Exchange to mark the start of a 24-hour Climate Camp.

Overall, more than 150 anti-poverty groups, environmentalist organisations, trade unionists, peace campaigners and faith groups in a rainbow alliance of protests, but plans to hold an alternative G20 conference adjacent to the summit were cancelled.

A ring of steel was being placed around the Excel conference centre in east London, where the summit was being held, with extra protection officers drafted in to secure the hotels where the delegates will be staying and the venues where they will be attending functions.

On Tuesday, the British government disclosed that the cost of the summit had risen by a further £2 million to over £20 million, including the more than £7 million cost of the security operation, known as Operation Glencoe, commanded from a control room in south London using thousands of cameras and 80 screens.