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G8 Summit Faces Biggest Anti-globalization Demo As Leaders Mull Future
GENOA, Italy, July 21 (News Agencies) - More than 100,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Genoa Saturday in the biggest anti-globalization protest to date as world leaders meeting at a Group of Eight summit agreed to differ on global warming.
Hundreds of militants broke off from the main march and hurled petrol bombs and rocks at police who responded with tear gas in an ugly sideshow to the main event, the French news agency AFP said.
Shop windows were smashed and a pall of smoke billowed over part of the Mediterranean port town in a repeat of scenes from Friday, when Genoa was turned into a war zone as anarchists ran amok and one rioter was shot dead by police.
But the massed ranks of riot police appeared to be containing the disturbances to one area of the city as the colorful main march continued in a carnival atmosphere under the balmy Ligurian sun.
Meanwhile, leaders of the world's most powerful nations discussed the Kyoto protocol but made no progress on the climate treaty, a spokesman said.
They also addressed the burning issue of violence at international summits, condemning the riots in Genoa but refusing to cancel such meetings in the future.
Saturday's giant march was organized by the Genoa Social Forum (GSF), an umbrella group gathering around 1,000 anti-globalization movements.
It moved slowly through the city bringing disparate groups representing socialists, environmentalists, farmers and trade unions united in their condemnation of western capitalism.
The march started at via Caprera, east of the center and headed close to the heart of Genoa where 20,000 police have enforced an exclusion zone around the summit venue, before swinging northwards, away from the summit venue.
The GSF had pledged extra marshals to avoid a repeat of Friday's violence, which was condemned by the powerful nations in a statement released early Saturday.
People had a right to legitimate protest, the Group of Eight powers said in a joint statement.
"But we condemn firmly and absolutely the violence overflowing into anarchy of a small minority that we have seen at work here in Genoa and at recent international meetings," they said.
The G8 leaders - from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - expressed "sorrow and regret" at the death of 23-year-old Paolo Guilaini, shot dead in clashes with police Friday.
But they were determined to pursue further gatherings.
"It is vitally important that democratically elected leaders legitimately representing millions of people can meet to discuss areas of common concern," the leaders' statement said.
The format of future G8 summits would be discussed at a working dinner on Saturday night, said Paolo Bonaiuti, a spokesman for summit host Silvio Berlusconi.
"What would be the most suitable organization? Are things being done in the right way? These are the subjects that will be discussed in the last dinner of the summit," Bonaiuti told reporters.
Some leaders called for a re-think in the handling of top international meetings, persistently targeted by protesters ever since a World Trade Organization meeting in November-December 1999.
"Of course, we will change our management (of the summits) but we have to continue with G8 summits in which we discuss how we can effectively develop the world," Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters.
Away from the clamor on the streets, the summit continued in the gilded halls of the Palazzo Ducale, sealed off behind a strictly enforced security zone, which has turned the area of Genoa's old port into a fortress.
U.S. President George W. Bush was to hold bilateral talks later with the two biggest critics of his repudiation of the global warming accord, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
French officials, who declined to be named, said Chirac had sought support for the 1997 protocol from Schroeder, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as the summit opened Friday.
Chirac believes "there is no alternative to the Kyoto Protocol and the cuts it calls for in greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming," the officials said.
A working lunch was given over to discussion on the Middle East and the Balkans. Earlier, they had also discussed poverty reduction, how the use of technology can benefit developing countries, and Africa.
Mindful of criticism that they represent a rich club of countries whose trade policies are detrimental to the world's poorest economies, the leaders set in motion a plan for closer cooperation between the G8 and African countries which will be discussed at the next summit in Canada.
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