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| Will the Earth
Summit save the world?
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JOHANNESBURG,
August 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The second U.N.
Earth Summit opened in
Johannesburg Monday, August 26, with politicians from around the world
facing 10 days of intense negotiations to overcome rifts on
alleviating poverty world-wide while protecting the environment.
Activists
are poised to make their protests heard - eight marches have been
authorized - but an extra 8,000 police have been deployed in
Johannesburg and the army is patrolling too.
The
police have already cracked down on protesters - firing stun-grenades
into an illegal march by anti-globalization protesters, arresting more
than 100 landless South Africans protesting against evictions from
squatter camps, and arresting Greenpeace commandos who unfurled
banners at South Africa’s nuclear power plant, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) said.
South
African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma Dlamini-Zuma warned
protestors that South Africa would not allow “anarchy”.
Security
services are using an unmanned plane to watch for troublemakers and
any attempt to ambush the motorcades of the 104 heads of state who
have said they will attend the last two or three days of the 10-day
conference. Combat helicopters are on standby, and plans are in place
to protect delegates from snipers, air attacks and mortar fire.
Authorities
have authorized eight marches during the summit, with the biggest a
march of 10,000 landless people set for next Saturday, August 31.
At
the Johannesburg summit, poor nations will be pushing for more aid and
better access to the markets of rich nations, while developed
countries are concerned about the potential impact on their economies,
BBC’s online news service reported.
Greenpeace has said
that the trade issue will make “farce” of the Earth Summit.
“This
is meant to be a conference about the environment, not
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Demonstrators
argue with South African police in Johannesburg
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about
trade,” its political director, Remi Parmentier said, BBC reported.
Diplomats
from more than 30 key countries met behind closed doors in
Johannesburg over the weekend in a bid to bridge differences over fair
trade, market access for developing nations and timetables for action.
“They
are narrowing the gaps and some of the brackets (identifying areas of
disagreement) have been removed,” South African Foreign Minister
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told journalists Sunday afternoon.
A
major disagreement is over objectives for poverty relief, which the
European Union says are indispensable but which the United States
refuses to endorse, in line with its reluctance to enter into any new
multilateral deals.
This
summit, officially known as the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable
Development, is a follow-up to the first Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro in 1992, which put forward 2,500 recommendations, the majority
of which have not been implemented.
By
Sunday afternoon, August 25, 4,000 government delegates had
registered, along with 3,000 non-governmental delegates who will
observe the discussions, and 2,000 journalists; 104 heads of state or
government are expected to attend the final two or three days.
South
African President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday, welcomed delegates to the
Earth Summit, urging them to unite to overcome “global apartheid”
in the path towards sustainable development.
Mbeki
said the world was still gripped in crisis 10 years after the first
Earth Summit in Rio, battling unsustainable practices, war and
conflict and coming to terms with threats of terrorism.
“We
see a world ailing in poverty, inequality and environmental
degradation despite the agreements at the Rio Earth Summit,” he said
at a colorful welcoming ceremony at the Ubuntu (Friendship) Village,
the summit's cultural hub.
“Out
of Johannesburg and out of Africa must emerge something new that takes
the world forward away from the entrenchment of global apartheid to
the realization of goals of sustainable development.”
“This
is a moment of hope, not despair.”
