Demonstrators clashed with police in central Rome on Saturday as
US President George W. Bush wound up a visit to Pope Benedict and
Italian leaders.
Hours after Bush had discussed Middle East peace with Pope
Benedict and was wrapping up meetings with Italian politicians,
police in riot gear charged and fired tear gas at demonstrators who
had thrown bottles at them in Rome's historic center.
The protestors, some wearing motorcycle helmets and bandanas to
cover their faces, shattered the window of a bank and overturned
outdoor dining tables on some of Rome's most famous streets.
Several policemen and demonstrators were injured.
Tear gas wafted into Rome's historic Piazza Navona, which had
been the scene of a demonstration that was for the most part
peaceful. Anti-American graffiti was spray-painted on some statues
and restaurants and shopkeepers lowered their shutters.
The incident was far from where Bush was staying at the US
ambassador's residence in another quarter of the city and on the
other side of the Tiber River from the Vatican.
About 12,000 demonstrators, most of them peaceful, staged
protests against the US-led war in Iraq and the expansion of a US
military base in Italy.
The highlight of Bush's day on Saturday was his first-ever
meeting with Benedict, a fellow religious conservative, in the
Vatican.
Bush later said he felt "awe" in the presence of the Pope, who
urged him to seek "regional and negotiated" solutions to Middle
East conflicts like Iraq.
Addressing the 80-year-old Roman Catholic leader as "sir"
instead of the usual honorific "Your Holiness," Bush heard the
Pope's concerns about the Middle East and the plight of Christians
in Iraq.
Bush told him of his government's efforts to combat AIDS and
malaria in Africa and hunger and poverty.
He told the Pope in front of reporters about what he called "the
very strong AIDS initiative" at the Group of Eight summit this
week, which pledged US$60 billion to fight diseases ravaging Africa
- although much of that was made up of existing pledges.
A Vatican statement said Benedict and Bush had discussed the
Middle East and the Holy See's "hope for a regional and negotiated
solution to the conflicts that afflict that region."
Following his meeting with the Pope, Bush arrived in Albania
yesterday, the first visit by a US leader to the Balkan state which
had prepared the kind of welcome he could only dream of in many
countries.
Bush said yesterday the United Nations should grant independence
quickly to the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo, and if Russia
continued to block it the West would act.
"At some point in time, sooner rather than later, you've got to
say enough is enough, Kosovo is independent," he told a news
conference.
Bush said he was "worried about expectations not being met" in
Kosovo, where 90 percent of the population are ethnic Albanians
demanding independence from Serbia and where NATO leads a
peacekeeping force of 17,000 troops.
He said Washington would continue to seek a solution through the
United Nations but "if it is apparent that (an agreement) is not
going to happen in a relatively quick period of time, in my
judgment, we need to put forward the resolution. Hence, deadline,"
Bush said.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe later stressed: "We're
working inside the UN Security Council and that includes
Russia."
(China Daily June 11, 2007)
