Reagan main target of London protests

Press, 11 June 1984, Page 10

Reagan main target of London protests

NZPA-Reuter London Some 150,000 demonstra- • tors clogged central London yesterday in anti-nuclear protests staged during President Ronald Reagan’s visit for the economic summit conference. The police said that they had arrested 214 people, mostly for obstruction, but no violent incidents were reported. The protests snarled traffic around the United States Embassy as the demonstrators attempted to encircle the building. Thirteen people were arrested outside Buckingham Palace when Mr Reagan arrived for a banquet given by the Queen for the seven Western leaders. The police said that the demonstrators had pushed forward from a crowd of 500 sightseers. The protesters shouted slogans but did not stop Mr tteagan’s car as it swept through the Palace gates. Earlier, the Western leaders arrived 30 minutes late at the London Guildhall for the final summit meeting ceremony after crossing the city from the Lancaster House conference centre. An official put the delay down to heavy traffic. The protests, under the theme, “Return to Sender,” were against the siting of American cruise missiles in Britain. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the main organiser of the protests, said that 150,000 was a conservative estimate of the crowd. The police did not issue a figure. The march had a carnival

mood as it wound from a London Park to Trafalgar Square in bright sunshine. Many wore swimsuits to keep cool and others sported circus-style costumes. An actress, Susannah York, one of the celebrities taking part in the protest, said: “I want Ronald Reagan to understand we do not want his missiles. We want them to follow him home when he leaves.” Hopes for a fresh dialogue with the Soviet Union and a better deal for Third World countries were voiced by the leaders, who were due to return today. The meeting came to a climax in the historic Guildhall yesterday with the British Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, reading a declaration that pledged heads of Government to fight inflation by sustaining “prudent monetary and budgetary policies.” The conference sent out calls for early resumption of nuclear arms negotiations broken off by Moscow last year, for an end to the 44-month-old Gulf war, and for stronger measures to combat international terrorism. The differences at the conference focused largely on high United States interest rates, regarded by most partners as prejudicing economic recovery in other countries, and on a timetable for a new round of tariff-cutting negotiations advocated by Japan with American support. But Mrs Thatcher, the conference host, brushed aside suggestions that the disagreements were serious

and said that the leaders had drawn up “a clear plan of action for the next 12 months.” The West German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, said that he hoped Moscow would “react in a constructive way” to the conference’s offer of long-term cooperation and dialogue with the West. The leaders also launched a big effort to ease the ?US6SO billion (51001 billion) debt burden which threatens the political stability of some developing countries. In response to calls from Latin American States for urgent action, the summit conference sought to provide a medium-term framework for solving the crisis, which also poses risks to the economic health of Western banks. Conference sources said that it appeared the antiterrorism declaration, brain-child of Mrs Thatcher; had run into opposition from some other heads of Government. The French President, Mr Francois Mitterrand, was portrayed by the sources as having particular reservations about her plan for concerted action to combat State-sponsored terrorism. Mrs Thatcher wants an international blacklist of diplomats linked with terrorism after the Libyan Embassy siege in which a young policewoman was shot dead by gunmen firing from the building. Under her plan, any such diplomat expelled from one country would be barred from others.