[kj] Blindness

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A LIVERPOOL man was blinded in one eye by a police
water cannon as he 
staged a protest at the G8 summit in Germany.

The 33-year-old from Aigburth spoke exclusively to the
Daily Post of 
the horror and pain of being directly hit in the face
with the 
powerful jets by officers he claimed were using the
crowd control 
devices as weapons.

The protester, a member of Liverpool's Social Forum,
is suffering 
from shock and witnesses to the incident, which
occurred at the 
protest in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm on
Thursday, said 
they saw his eye come out of its socket.

Speaking last night from the Eye Unit at the Royal
Liverpool 
Hospital, the victim, who wishes only to be called
Matt, said a CAT 
scan had revealed he had sustained internal bleeding,
extensive 
damage to his Iris and possible damage to his retina.

Doctors have now told the keen reader, cyclist and
amateur 
photographer, that he will face future operations,
cataracts, and 
glaucoma.

They told him that because of the internal bleeding it
would be 
between six to eight weeks before they could assess
the damage to his 
retina but warned that permanent harm had been caused
and that he 
will never fully regain the vision in that eye.

Matt said: "I went to Germany to take part in a
peaceful protest and 
to be honest at the start of the day there was a very
jolly, almost 
carnival, atmosphere.

"There were three lines of police and all of a sudden
things got more 
aggressive.

"There were a few baton charges so all the protesters
just linked 
arms and stood firm. It was all still very peaceful.

"I have never seen water cannons before and all of a
sudden there 
were eight or nine of them. The police made an
announcement in German 
but none of us understood it and then we were fired
at.

"I was knocked to the floor at first and then when I
got up I was hit 
right in the face.

"The pain was incredible. My eye had come out and I
just ran off 
holding it to find an ambulance."

Matt was one of seven protesters and a German
journalist who were 
taken to Rostock University Hospital with eye
injuries.

He said one protester had also been knocked
unconscious by the water 
cannons and another suffered a perforated ear drum.

Matt added: "They were using water cannons as weapons,
which they are 
not supposed to do.

"Their actions were deliberate and vindictive and
completely 
unnecessary.

"I went there to express my feelings peacefully as I
am entitled to 
do. What they did to me was absolutely dis- graceful.
Doctors can't 
believe what they have done to me.

"The German activists we spoke to said they have never
before seen 
the police use this type of water cannon or fire at
people heads."

Matt added that he was going to take advice about
suing the German 
police and will campaign for a stop to water cannons
being fired at 
protesters' heads.

Liverpool Daily Post - June 11th





INTERZONE
http://www.augustineleudar.110mb.com/Interzone.htm

RTX, Kristin Hersh, Githead, Shellac, Michael Gira & the Dirty Three interviewed here:
www.perfectsoundforever.com

Polysics interviewed here:
www.cultcargo.net


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