GENEVA — When neighboring France hosted the Group of Eight summit just across the border, Switzerland ended up with most of the protesters — some of them costing millions of dollars in looting and vandalism.
Now, the Swiss say they don't want to be stuck with the bill as well.
"Who will pay for the damage?" asked the daily Tribune de Geneve in its lead story Tuesday. "The battle has begun."
After the summit wound up Tuesday, the Geneva city government declared it was fed up with protests and banned any further public gatherings, telling police to "concentrate their efforts to stop these new forms of criminality."
Riot police were out in force Tuesday evening in Geneva, backed up by two water cannons, despite the apparent absence of demonstrators. Their presence drew people out into the street to complain about the heavy security, and police fired water, tear gas and rubber pellets to disperse a crowd that included about 20 people sitting in the road.
With protesters breaking windows, setting fires and looting over the previous three days, initial estimates of damage to banks and shops in Geneva have run into several million dollars. Damage in Lausanne was at least in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, officials said.
French President Jacques Chirac apologized to the people who suffered rounds of devastation from the violent so-called Black Bloc protesters, who blended in with other demonstrators opposing the June 1-3 summit of the world's seven industrialized powers and Russia.
"I have a special concern for the residents of Switzerland, especially at Geneva and Lausanne, who have been victims not of the anti-globalization protesters but of some gangs of vandals," Chirac said.
He said in a closing summit statement that businesses and other victims would "of course be compensated" but didn't say how much France might pay.
The Geneva government welcomed Chirac's statement and said it was ready to start taking claims before it is decided who will pay.
Micheline Spoerri, the Geneva cantonal — or state — official in charge of police, foresaw the need to compensate shop owners. "These concerns are totally legitimate," she said, but added, "We don't want to give a blank check."
Chirac's choice of Evian, a spa on Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps, meant France could easily protect the leaders attending the summit. As part of the deal, France agreed to pay up to $14.5 million of the Swiss security costs for the meeting.
But protecting the banks and luxury shops in the nearest cities — Geneva and Lausanne — proved much more difficult.
The Swiss had been braced for damage. They mobilized 5,562 members of the Swiss militia, said army spokesman Philippe Zahno. Police in Geneva were at least 2,250 and 1,300 in Lausanne — the total including officers from other parts of Switzerland and 1,000 riot-seasoned guards from Germany.
In the end, the extra security wasn't enough to stop the chaos. Some property owners, including the Geneva city government — even took out special insurance damage to cover damage caused by civil unrest.
"I'm too busy to talk," said a representative of L'Immobilier insurance company, assessing the damage to a burned, city-owned building. "It don't know the number of cases I've got to deal with. But it's a lot."
Ashes blew in the wind, the air carried the acrid smell of melted plastic and a charred motorbike lay in the hallway. The damage to the building, which housed a garage and office, was estimated at $150,000, said City Insurance Office official Gianni Sottocasa.
"We took out a special policy for the period of the G8," he said. "It even covered damage by molotov cocktails."
Associated Press writer Jonathan Fowler contributed to this story.