Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested Wednesday afternoon at the Copenhagen climate conference, while protesting against "exclusionary tactics" which kept most of the NGO members outside the conference center.

Protestors march towards the Bella Center, where the UN Climate Change 2009 Conference is taking place, during a demonstration in Copenhagen December 16, 2009. [Xinhua]

The organizers behind the "Reclaim Power" march said negotiators at the COP15 meeting are failing the people they are supposed to represent.

Around 100 protesters, mostly from NGOs, started the march in the heart of Bella Center. They were joined by hundreds of other people who claimed to have "conscious hearts".

The protesters shouted "Reclaim power!", "Join the people´s assembly" and "Repect indigenous people's rights" while several native American Indians drummed and chanted songs.

The environment minister of Indonesia met the group on his way to the conference center and personally got off the car and paid tribute to the protesters. "Very good! Well done," he said, giving them a thumbs-up.

Danish TV2 news estimated the demonstrators numbered more than 2,500.

The protesting group that came from inside Bella Center was supposed to converge with a much bigger group of protesters that marched toward the conference center from Taarnby, a suburb of Copenhagen a few kilometers away.

But when the two groups tried to break the police cordon to meet each other, police used tear gas and batons to stop them.

"We will get past the police cordon so that we can hold a popular assembly and discuss with delegates from the summit ... to get a climate solution," said Climate Justice Action spokesman Peter Nielsen. "The police have tried to get in our way all week now," he said. "This is a question of resolving a global problem, and we will not hold people back."

Femke de Vries, member of Climate Justice Action, told China Daily that the protest was not intended to be violent, but was aiming to gain access to the venue to "pressure to the negotiators to take immediate action."

More than 45,000 people have requested access to the Bella Center, which has a capacity of 15,000. According to the local newspaper, about 22,000 have collected their accreditation passes.

Access is due to become even more restricted when state leaders begin arriving. UNFCCC Media Coordinator Alex Wuestenhagen said no more than 1000 NGO representatives would get access to the Bella Center on Thursday, while only 90 would get in on Friday.

Police stepped up security of the Bella Center on Wednesday, as 119 world leaders started to land in Copenhagen to participate in the final talks. Helicopters hovered in the sky very early on Wednesday and thousands of policemen were stationed at the conference center. Indonesian police who worked at the Bali climate conference two years ago came to Copenhagen to help the Danish police.

(chinadaily.com.cn December 17, 2009)