Author
amoshaun
Sounds hot! Philip can screw his fear of protest reporting!
Police fired water cannons to force back groups of farmers who hurled stones, firecrackers and snowballs at barbed-wire
barricades set up on the streets leading to the bunker-like Council of Ministers building.
Monday, February 26 8:41 PM SGT
Farmers, police clash ahead of EU ministers' meeting
BRUSSELS, Feb 26 (AFP) -
Farmers threatened with financial ruin by Europe's mad cow crisis clashed Monday with riot police outside the Brussels venue of
an EU agriculture ministers' meeting.
Police fired water cannons to force back groups of farmers who hurled stones, firecrackers and snowballs at barbed-wire
barricades set up on the streets leading to the bunker-like Council of Ministers building.
"Stick to the planned itinerary!" barked a police officer through a loudspeaker as one group of about 100 farmers was repulsed to
the gates of nearby Cinquantenaire Park, a helicopter whirring overhead.
No injuries were reported, and no tear gas was seen fired.
At the park gates, Belgian farmers set up a barbecue, grilling free steak sandwiches to underscore their belief that European beef
is safe to eat despite public fears of bovine spongiform encepalopathy (BSE).
Some farmers wore T-shirts emblazoned: "We're going to get slaughtered."
Others warmed themselves in the freezing cold by a wood and tire fire, as EU bureaucrats peered down amused from their
high-rise office windows.
EU agriculture ministers, who were to meet at 3:00 pm (1400 GMT), are to look at updated measures to contain the spread of
BSE, rebuild the battered EU beef market and bail out farmers who stand on the verge of financial ruin.
Earlier Monday farmers had choked off main highways and avenues into Brussels with more than 1,000 tractors, causing
rush-hour gridlock.
The Schuman subway (underground) station, which serves the EU district of the Belgian capital, was closed to commuters.
There were minor confrontations in front of the European Commission headquarters, with small groups of farmers taunting riot
police who were backed up by some 20 armored vans.
A Belgian federal police spokesman said over 1,000 extra officers had been mobilized for the demonstrations, called by Belgian
farmers with the support of French anti-globalization campaigner Jose Bove.
Besides reviewing the mad cow crisis, the EU farm ministers were to study an experts' report that another form of spongiform
encephalopathy could hit sheep and goats in the form of a disease known as scrapie.
They were also to get a first-hand report from British colleague Nick Brown on last week's surprise outbreak of highly contagious
foot-and-mouth disease in English pigs and cattle.
Foot-and-mouth disease, tacked onto the ministerial agenda at the last minute as an "other business" item, promised to get a lot
more attention here Monday.
Britain -- haunted by its BSE crisis in the 1990s -- moved swiftly after last week's outbreak, cutting off exports of all live animals,
meat and dairy products to the world at large as it rushed to deal with its first foot-and-mouth outbreak in 20 years.
The European Commission simultaneously ordered a similar, temporary ban on British exports to the 14 other EU nations.
And a growing list of countries outside the EU has been announcing their own bans on British animals and meat.
The EU ban runs only through Thursday, intended to buy time for the veterinary committee to come up with risk assessments and
recommendations.
But a commission spokeswoman warned it could last a lot longer. "It depends on the facts," she said, "on the extent and spread of
the disease in the UK. We'll see over the next week."
Foot-and-mouth disease is considered largely harmless to humans, and generally non-fatal to livestock, but as a highly contagious
virus it can spell financial ruin to farmers whose animals fall sick.
An official of the UN-affiliated European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease told AFP that "human health is
not in danger" from the outbreak.
And the commission spokeswoman also insisted the disease "as such is not transmittable to humans."
Despite those assurances, observers recalled that in the mid-1990s, the British government was telling the public the same thing
about BSE, until medical evidence showed the disease had jumped species to humans, killing them in the form of the variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD).