The southern Swiss cities of Geneva and Lausanne are preparing for protests during next week's Group of Eight summit just over the border in France.
France chose the spa town of Evian on the shores of Lake Geneva for the annual meeting of the world's most powerful leaders because the twisting roads leading to it were easy to defend against anti-globalisation protesters.
Demonstrators are reportedly converging on Lausanne and Geneva, the latter the home of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the European headquarters of the United Nations.
Haunted by images of the bloody street battles at Genoa's G8 summit two years ago, the Swiss are taking no chances with the three-day meeting of the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
Hundreds of police have been drafted in from neighbouring Swiss cantons and 1,000 troops have been borrowed from Germany to surround Geneva airport, where US President George W. Bush and other leaders arrive on Sunday.
Shopfronts in downtown Geneva are already boarded up and businesses are moaning the loss of trade and the cost of security.
Geneva prides itself on being the "humanitarian capital of the world" as the home of the International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian organisations.
But with many residents taking advantage of Thursday's Ascension Day holiday to leave town, Geneva had an empty, eerie feeling.
The main protests in Geneva - from where demonstrators are due to head over the border into France - are due on Sunday. Police have vowed to block any attempt to march on the airport or the lakeside headquarters of the WTO, long a target of anger among anti-globalisation activists.
In a country that puts almost any issue to a referendum, many say voters should have been consulted before the Swiss government agreed to help the French organise the event.
"Switzerland is not even a member of the G8," said one man in Lausanne, giving vent to the frustration that many Swiss feel about being sucked into a fight that is not theirs.
