Fortified ghost town as Bush and Schroeder make amends

Picture: Mainz protest

BERLIN - Thousands of demonstrators waving banners that read: "Not Welcome Mr War Criminal" overshadowed US President George Bush's first visit to Germany since the Iraq war yesterday, despite efforts by both sides to stress that their differences over the conflict belonged to the past.

Mr Bush's nine-hour stop over in Mainz for fence-mending talks with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder took place amid some of the strictest security measures ever enforced in Germany.

The centre of the Rhineland city was turned into a fortified ghost town. More than 15,000 police staged one of the biggest postwar security operations. The forbade inhabitants from going on to their balconies, sealed off autobahns (motorways) and brought river traffic on the Rhine to a standstill. Frogmen searched the Rhine for explosives and 1300 manhold covers were welded shut.

Thousands of employees including staff at the city's nearby Opel car factory, stayed away from work for the day because the restrictions made it impossible for them to travel. Factories, businesses and schools were shut.

However the draconian security measures failed to prevent more than seven thousand anti-Bush demonstrators from taking to the streets of the city to voice popular German opposition to his Presidency. Reuters news agency said there were about 12,000 protesters. Mainz police said it was one of the largest protests ever in the town of about 300,000 but the largely peaceful rally never got within a kilometre of Bush. 

It was the largest protest against the President since he embarked on his European tour on Monday.

Slogans such as "Not Welcome Mr Bush" and "Where Bush is there's War" were paraded through tightly cordoned off streets close to the city's main railway station - some two miles from Mainz's 17th century castle where Mr Bush was lunching with Mr Schroeder. Andreas Atzl leader of the "Not Welcome Mr Bush" campaign insisted; "We simply want to tell Mr Bush that his illegal war against Iraq represents the wrong kind of politics."

German police confiscated one poster that read" "We had our Hitler, now you have yours."

Bush's visit contrasted with that of his father to Mainz in 1989 when large crowds cheered Bush senior for his calls for the Berlin Wall to be torn down.

Other US presidents have also been given a hero's welcome in Germany.

"When John F. Kennedy came to Germany he drove through cheering crowds," said Mark Reichelt, 20, a student. "Now Bush is here and will drive through empty streets."

The protests reflected widespread popular German opposition to Mr Bush. One opinion poll published this week showed that four out of five Germans do not agree with the president's aim to promote democracy around the world.

Another revealed that the Germans trusted the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, more than his American counterpart.

The arrival of the presidential entourage caused havoc at the busy Frankfurt airport where Lufthansa alone cancelled 75 flights. Hundreds of other flights were delayed due to air space restrictions in force for Mr Bush's stay. For Bush's stay there was a strict ban on air traffic within a 60km radius of Mainz.

Bush and Schroeder bury Iraq hatchet

Predictably the protests were ignored by both Mr Bush and Mr Schroeder. Both leaders were at pains to stress that their sharp differences over the war in Iraq- that caused a major rift in transatlantic relations last year- were finally over.

"We make no attempt to conceal the fact that there were differences - but the differences of the past are in the past," Mr Schroeder said.

Mr Bush said that he now fully accepted Germany's refusal to commit troops to Iraq: "I fully accept your limits," he said.

However he later pointedly side-stepped questions from a journalist who asked whether like his father, the current President Bush, agreed that Germany and the United States were "partners in leadership."

Mr Bush replied that he viewed both countries as "partners".

A German commitment to step up training for police in Iraq and its support for democratic institutions in the country was matched by assurances from Mr Bush that Washington would co-operate with Berlin on the development of technology to combat climate change. The measure was intended to soften German objections to Washington's refusal to sign the Kyoto agreement.

The two sides also remain at loggerheads over German and French plans to lift the 15-year arms embargo on China before July.

Mr Bush has expressed "deep concern" that lifting the restrictions would fundamentally change the balance of power between China and America's key ally, Taiwan.

Bush has also urged Europe's leaders to take a more consistent line against the threat to democracy in Russia, and not to send mixed signals to Moscow.

The call came in private meetings in Brussels ahead of today's US-Russia summit meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Bratislava.

On Monday the US president hardened his rhetoric over the threat to democracy in Russia, setting the stage for a difficult summit meeting with Mr Putin today.

Mr Bush appealed for Moscow to "renew a commitment to democracy and the rule of law", later stressing the importance of a commitment to fundamental rights including freedom of the press.

During a private meeting with EU leaders in Brussels on Tuesday Mr Bush made clear his worries about Russia and registered his surprise that European leaders have sent different signals over their approach to Mr Putin.

France's president, Jacques Chirac, the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroder and the Italian premier, Silvio Berlusconi have all courted Mr Putin.

Tony Blair also struck up an alliance with the Russian president, though that seems to have cooled lately.

For several years, officials from the European Commission have complained about their negotiations with Moscow being undermined by national capitals.

Last year the EU refused to sign a co-operation deal covering economic areas until Moscow accepts the part of the arrangement relating to human rights.

- INDEPENDENT and REUTERS