Scottish Police Heighten Security Ahead of Group of 8 Summit

With a security operation named after a tree that local folklore says can ward off evil, police were making final preparations Friday for the arrival in Scotland of eight world leaders and tens of thousands of protesters.

By Sunday, about 10,600 officers will be available as part of Operation Sorbus to provide security for President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other leaders of the Group of 8 leading industrial nations as they gather Wednesday in Gleneagles, Scotland.

Police have erected a 5-mile fence around the Gleneagles Hotel, where the meeting will take place. Security cameras line the fence, and anyone who tries to bypass the barrier will be arrested, said a spokeswoman from Tayside Police, the local office responsible for the summit’s security.

Five roads near the hotel will be closed to keep traffic away from the conference site, about 40 miles northwest of Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital.

Officers will patrol the area around the meeting by foot and car. Mounted police will guard the streets, and security dogs will be deployed. A surveillance blimp with video cameras will relay images to a command center. Helicopters with loudspeakers and video cameras also will survey the area.

Should any breach in security occur at the hotel, the summit would be moved 20 miles to the Tulliallan Castle, Scotland’s police college, the Times of London reported. Local police would not comment on the plan but also said they would not deny it.

“We’re putting a very broad range of contingencies in place,” said the Tayside spokeswoman, adding that department policy required that she not to be named. “We’re planning for all eventualities.”

More than 100,000 activists are expected to descend on Edinburgh today for a march called “Make Poverty History,” which is being organized by charities and was approved by the City Council.

About 2,500 officers will police the march, said Kevin Smith, spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police, the Edinburgh-area agency in charge of monitoring the protest. Police are taking a nonconfrontational approach to the demonstration, he said. Officers will wear their usual uniforms, for example, though police in riot gear will be on hand in case of violence.

“We will be working hard to balance the rights of free speech and lawful protest,” said Paddy Tomkins, chief of Lothian and Borders Police.

One member of the board of the Lothian and Borders Police said he would join the demonstrators at the march.

“If the cause of ending world poverty is achieved,” said Eric Milligan, “it will be due as much to those who planned for months and worked on these demanding days, as to the demonstrators and the world leaders.”

Protesters have set up campsites near Edinburgh in anticipation of a number of rallies. The Stop the War Coalition will hold a march Sunday and demonstrate Monday outside Scotland’s Faslane nuclear submarine facility, about 50 miles northwest of Edinburgh. Police are bracing for what they fear will be a chaotic demonstration Monday: the Carnival for Full Enjoyment, arranged by an anarchist group.

Rock star Bob Geldof, who organized the Live 8 concerts taking place worldwide today to raise awareness about poverty in Africa, has urged 1 million people to descend on Edinburgh on Wednesday to show their support for Africa. The leaders from the Group of 8 -- the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia -- are expected to take up the issue at their meetings.

Police fear that the influx of so many people into a city of nearly 450,000 will cause problems.

“We are concerned that people may come up and have nowhere to stay and nothing to do,” a Lothian and Borders police spokeswoman told the media. “We are trying to discourage them.”

Peter Wilson, chief of the Fife Police, was quoted by the Scotsman newspaper as saying he was prepared for violence of the magnitude seen at the G-8 summit four years ago in Genoa, Italy. There, a protester died and hundreds of police and demonstrators were injured in clashes.

Wilson warned potential troublemakers that they would be under surveillance. “We know where to find you,” he said.