The Munich Security Conference takes place annually the first weekend in February. It is hosted in the hotel Bayerischer Hof and all of the surrounding streets are sealed off. The conference is attended by about 300 guests from over 40 different countries. They include defence and foreign affairs ministers, international security experts, high-ranking military officers, select business people, and the media. In previous years big names such as Hillary Clinton, Kofi Annan, Donald Rumsfeld, and Gerhard Schröder have been present.
The conference was initiated in 1962 and has been held every year since with only two exceptions: 1991, due to the first Gulf War, and 1997. The conference organisers describe the event as a "peace conference". They use the tagline "peace through dialogue".
Not everyone agrees with this, however.
During the past three years a group with the catchy name "Munich against the security conference" has organised protest rallies. In 2002 over 35,000 people joined the protest and 3,500 police had to be drafted in to enforce order. See the BBC news reports: Munich Protesters 2002. The protestors say they don't approve of such a "war conference" being held in their city. In 2003 and 2004 more protests took place on Marienplatz, Sonnenstrasse, and Maximilianplatz. The same will probably happen in 2005.
In recent years the conference has been accompanied by protest marches. In 2002 there were riots on Marienplatz and Tal.
More Munich Security Conference - Protest Photos 2002
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