29 Injured, 89 Arrested in Protest at UC Berkeley

At least 29 people were injured and 89 arrested this morning when baton-swinging police charged a line of about 300 anti-apartheid demonstrators throwing bottles, rocks and eggs outside the University of California’s administration building on the campus here.

An estimated 120 campus police officers and lawmen from surrounding communities, clearing the way for buses holding demonstrators arrested earlier, broke through a group of protesters who had barricaded themselves behind overturned garbage cans and debris near University Hall at about 7:30 a.m.

The arrests began peacefully shortly before 5 a.m., but escalated into violence when the demonstrators attempted to block the buses from leaving the campus for the Alameda County Jail at Santa Rita. The demonstrators were protesting the university’s estimated $2.4 billion in investments in firms that do business in South Africa.

UC Berkeley campus police and officers from the cities of Oakland, Alameda and Berkeley dispersed the crowd. Reporters saw one demonstrator clubbed unconscious and several others suffering from head injuries. At least one policeman was hit in the head with a thrown bottle.

A check of three area hospitals indicated that 11 persons, 8 of them students, were treated for injuries and later released. University spokesman Tom Debley said 11 protesters and 18 police officers were hurt.

A spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff’s office said 89 persons were booked for suspicion of trespass and resisting arrest.