In These New Times

Iceland out of NATO, Iceland into Europe!

29th January, 2009

Police used pepper spray and arrested six protesters at a demonstration at the venue of a NATO meeting in Reykjavik, police said on Wednesday.

NATO officials, including Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, met in Iceland on Wednesday for a conference on the security challenges posed by global warming effects.

About 70 people turned out to protest the event, Police Captain Petur Gudmundsson said.

“We have arrested six individuals and were forced to use pepper spray in an isolated incident,” Gudmundsson told Reuters.

“Two of the people were arrested for burning a flag,” he said, adding he did not know the nationality of the flag.

Iceland has long been divided over NATO, which it became a member of in 1949. The decision to join led to a riot outside of parliament, one of the most talked-about events in modern Icelandic history.

Protests have become a regular feature of the once-tranquil island, which is now in the throes of a political crisis.

Thousands of the country’s 320,000 residents have taken to the streets, angry over the handling of a financial meltdown that has ruined the local economy.