Rioting Kurds Clash With German Police
Kurds demonstrating for an independent homeland clashed with police in Berlin and in the Bavarian city of Augsburg. More than 80 police and at least four Kurdish protesters were injured.
Police took 24 Kurds into custody to face riot charges.
In Berlin, 38 police were hurt in clashes Saturday with Kurds, who threw stones and firebombs, police said.
In Bavaria, trouble began Saturday after police stopped buses carrying about 6,000 Kurds to a banned demonstration in Augsburg linked to today’s annual Kurdish spring festival.
Hundreds of Kurds blocked the Munich-Stuttgart expressway, overturning several vehicles and setting fire to improvised barricades. Police used water cannons to clear the road after about nine hours.
There also were street battles in Augsburg, where courts had banned a Kurdish rally on grounds that it had been called by the illegal Kurdish Workers’ Party, known as the PKK.
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