April 3 (Bloomberg) -- Strasbourg, which is playing host to President Barack Obama and other leaders for a NATO summit, has become a fortress city, with police barricades and locals discouraged from waving flags with the message “PEACE.”

The medieval French city with its 13th-century cathedral and canals has banned anyone displaying protest symbols close to the summit venue. About 40,000 people, who live in what has been declared a security zone, have been screened by the authorities. Traffic has been barred from the area which is patrolled by riot police with water cannon. The clampdown in the city of 273,000, one of three venues for the two-day summit starting today, has drawn fire from some organizations.

“Is this a government fatwa?” said Catherine Rio, a member of the Peace Movement founded in 1949 in France. “The people of Strasbourg were very offended by the security officers’ behavior. They are annoyed and feel besieged.”

Police arrested 300 people and charged 105 of them following clashes yesterday when about 2,000 protesters tried to penetrate Strasbourg’s protected zone, police said. Police repulsed that march with teargas, and several bus shelters were destroyed and shop windows broken.

The summit marks the 60th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. France, which last month decided to rejoin the alliance’s integrated military command after a 43-year hiatus, beefed up security measures ahead of the meeting in Strasbourg and the German towns of Kehl and Baden-Baden on the other bank of the Rhine. The French government asked police to remove any signs of protest “that would disrupt public order” including flags, two police labor union leaders said.

‘Don’t Disturb’

“The truth is that they don’t want anything to disturb the summit,” Oliver Varlet, head of UNSA police union in eastern France, said in a telephone interview.

The security operation follows demonstrations during the Group of 20 meeting in London on April 1 and yesterday. Many stores in Strasbourg’s city center such as Gucci are staying closed during the summit and have boarded up their windows to protect against possible violent protests.

“I can tell you the police won’t let it happen,” Varlet said with regard to public display of flags saying “No-to- NATO” or a white flag of surrender in addition to the rainbow- colored “PEACE” symbol that have emerged on some Strasbourg houses over the last few days.

A city court this week rejected the flag-owners’ claim that the police moves are unlawful and violate freedom of expression. Flags have been distributed by groups protesting the summit.

‘Peace’ Signs

A police spokesman denied that the French government had ordered officers to remove protest signs like the “PEACE” flags during the summit. The spokesman, who declined to be identified in accordance with police rules, said officers would only remove signs deemed “offensive, libelous or racist.”

Demonstrations started earlier this week when several hundred protesters faced off with riot police on the pedestrian “Footbridge of Two Banks” which crosses the Rhine linking France and Germany. Obama will walk across the bridge tomorrow.

The Interior Ministry expects up to 40,000 anti-NATO demonstrators that day, and 2,000 of them could be “violent,” French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said.

France has deployed more than 9,000 riot police and special forces in and around Strasbourg when the alliance’s 28 heads of state and government gather for the summit, officials said.

‘Tough, Violent’

“We expect this demonstration to be tough, maybe violent,” Philippe Capon, an anti-riot police chief and UNSA union leader, said in a telephone interview. He said the London G-20 demonstrations and “mounting social unrest with this crisis” may “heat up the protests.”

Across the Rhine, German authorities said they were preparing for demonstrations in Baden-Baden, where the NATO leaders are to have dinner tonight, and in Kehl.

As many as 3,000 protesters are expected in Baden-Baden, police spokesman Michael Sengle said from Freiburg. Some 14,600 police are on hand to respond to possible violence in Germany’s biggest security operation since the 2007 G-8 summit in Heiligendamm, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at Hfouquet1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 3, 2009 06:51 EDT