Friends of the earth director detained over letter drop in Davos

Davos: 24 January 2003, 3pm. - Friends of the Earth England Wales and Northern Ireland executive director Tony Juniper was detained by Swiss security police today for attempting to take a bag of letters in to the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The letters were addressed to 170 politicians in the Forum and called on the world’s elected representatives to hold multinationals to account for bad practices.

At first the Swiss police providing security for the WEF refused Mr Juniper - who has full accreditation to all areas of the conference - access to the venue. After 40 minutes they invited him in to the security area and away from campaigner colleagues.

However, once in the security area, Mr Juniper was seized by the arms and frogmarched off the main road passing through the venue. His bag containing the letters - already shown to the security staff – was seized and he was prevented from either entering the conference building or leaving. Mr Juniper was eventually released but was unable to deliver the letters.

Mr Juniper immediately informed the WEF that he was not prepared to participate in events today and Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland is considering whether he should walk out of the WEF altogether.

Friends of the Earth’s Director Tony Juniper said:
“The theme for this year's WEF is building trust. What a joke. Will Colin Powell or the CEO of Nestle be frogmarched behind the building and searched before they are allowed in? How can ordinary people trust the WEF and multinationals if they engage in the suppression of voices which are different to their own.”

The incident occurred on the day the WEF itself published research which found: “Heads of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are the only leaders who are fully trusted in most countries.” See www.weforum.org