The Hindu : International / India & World : Britain urged to reappraise G-8 summit security

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 22, 2005

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International - India & World

Britain urged to reappraise G-8 summit security

Hasan Suroor

Opposition demands immediate review of security plans Police defended the £100-million security operation and described as ``nonsense'' reports suggesting confusion and disarray.

LONDON: The British Government is facing calls to ``reappraise'' security for world leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, at next month's summit of industrialised nations (G-8) in Gleneagles, Scotland, following allegations that Ministers were taking it for ``granted.''

Opposition leaders have demanded an ``immediate'' review after a Sunday newspaper published details of what it claimed were ``confidential'' security plans — codenamed ``Operation Sorbus'' — leaked to it by a member of the intelligence community in Scotland.

``The immediate task for the Home Secretary must be to reappraise all aspects of security at G-8 in the light of this breach to ensure the safety and security of all those attending,'' said the Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis.

His remarks came amid accusations that security for the summit was in ``disarray'' because of ``complacency'' among Ministers. The source of the alleged leak was reported in The Independent on Sunday as saying that he wanted to ``shock'' Ministers who, he claimed, were ``taking for granted security arrangements for the summit.''

The alleged leak, which included ``official'' photographs of the estate and hotel where U.S. President George W. Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other world leaders would stay, was described by the unnamed source as a ``wake-up'' call for the Government.

Police defended the £100-million security operation and described as ``nonsense'' reports suggesting confusion and disarray.

``No such concerns have been raised with Tayside Police [responsible for security] and to say Ministers, or indeed anyone involved in the preparations for the summit, are approaching the event with complacency could not be further from the truth,'' a senior officer told one newspaper.

The issue has become important because of the prospect of thousands of protesters converging on the summit venue after the activist-singer Bob Geldof called for a million people to march to Edinburgh in support of his campaign for aid to Africa.

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