Protesters and Police Draw Earth Summit Battle Lines

REUTERS 25aug02

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa warned demonstrators at the Earth Summit to obey the law on Sunday after a street protest eclipsed the battle behind closed doors for an elusive agreement between rich and poor states.

Pope John Paul led appeals for the 10-day summit to safeguard the planet but there was widespread concern that 100 world leaders and thousands of delegates will not succeed.

Critically, President Bush will not attend the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which formally starts work on Monday in Johannesburg.

A small, brief but heavily televised street demonstration on Saturday night grabbed the spotlight and drew a clear warning to protesters from the South African police and government.

``We expect them to feel free to say and do what they like -- within the law...This summit is not a summit for anarchy,'' Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told a news briefing.

Police said they made one arrest and fired three stun grenades to disperse several hundred leftists who tried to stage an unauthorized march in central Johannesburg, some 12 miles from the summit venue in the plush suburb of Sandton.

``We had to show them we wouldn't let this happen during the summit. If they want to march they must get permission,'' Police Director Happy Schutter told Reuters.

At least 10,000 extra police and troops are deployed for the summit, by far the biggest and most prestigious event South Africa has hosted since the end of apartheid white rule in 1994.

Police are determined to make crime-ridden Johannesburg a safe haven during the August 26-September 4 summit and prevent the violent mass demonstrations that have marred recent gatherings of global leaders in Seattle, Genoa and elsewhere.

``I hope that we start generating news here in terms of the environment. That's what will get people's attention,'' summit Secretary General Nitin Desai told Reuters.

RICH AND POOR

The Pope urged delegates to find a compromise on a raft of environmental and other issues dividing rich and poor, 10 years after the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

``Men have been assigned by God as administrators of the Earth -- to cultivate it and look after it,'' the 82-year-old pontiff said at the Vatican.

Sandton's neighboring suburb is the grim shanty town of Alexandra. The summit is supposed to be in aid of its 350,000 dirt-poor residents -- and the rest of the estimated 1.2 billion people in the world who eke out a life on less than $1 a day.

Uphill negotiations ahead of the UN summit went into a second day on Sunday in the tightly guarded conference center.

The last preparatory talks had ended deadlocked in Bali in June and scant progress was made on Saturday. Rich countries are reluctant to grant new aid as part of efforts to halve world poverty by fueling environmentally friendly economic growth.

Delegates were hunting compromises on issues including boosting healthcare, reining in pollution from burning fossil fuels and protecting dwindling fish stocks.

The gloomy outlook of many was reflected in comments by British Prime Minister Tony Blair's own senior ``green'' adviser.

Blair's government is generally portrayed as pro-environment by the standards of many major Western nations but Jonathan Porritt said his boss offered only ``patchy'' leadership and his policies were dangerously in thrall to big business.

``They are doing some things right but it's piecemeal. It's patchy,'' Porritt, Blair's chief adviser on sustainable development, told the BBC.

``It is not done at a strategic level and it is not done with the quality of leadership that we really seek.''

Jan Pronk, a top UN official, said there had to be an agreement at Johannesburg but even that would be insufficient.

``The result of the conference is not the agreement in itself, it will be a commitment to implement the agreement,'' he told a news briefing.

``This is a very important summit. It will shape what should be done to make sure that our world is a world...that we would love to hand over to future generations,'' South Africa's Dlamini-Zuma said.

SHRINKING SUMMIT

Environment and other ministers will lead formal talks starting on Monday after what is billed as a spectacular opening ceremony with African dancing and drumming on Sunday evening.

Organizers say they expect up to 100 world leaders to attend -- Secretary of State Colin Powell will head the U.S. delegation as Washington says Bush is busy with security and the economy.

But wild horses will not keep Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe from taking part. Harare's official Sunday Mail newspaper said Mugabe, who is under European Union and North American sanctions because of alleged human rights abuses, was ready to confront Blair and other Western critics at the Earth Summit.

Predictions for the number of delegates were slashed before the summit from 65,000 to about 40,000 but even that seems to be proving optimistic. By Sunday only 9,000 government officials, journalists and representatives of major lobby groups had been accredited at the official summit, the U.N. said.

Thousands more are accredited at the main non-governmental conference held at an exhibition center in another part of town.