Voice of poor raised in hours of Earth Summit protest

By MATT DAILY in JOHANNESBURG

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and South African President Thabo Mbeki were due to explore the roots of mankind today, leaving officials at the Earth Summit to bicker over how to save humanity from itself.

The two leaders will visit South Africa's Sterkfontein Caves, a World Heritage site north of Johannesburg known as the cradle of humankind, where fossils up to 3.5 million years old have been unearthed.

The trip will be the first in Annan's four-day visit to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, where more than 100 world leaders hope to agree a sweeping UN plan to reduce poverty without poisoning the planet.

With a flood of foreign dignitaries last night due to descend on the wealthy suburb of Sandton, where the conference is being held, the police remained on red alert. But they were relieved the first major protest march passed without incident.

For all the firebrand slogans such as "Osama bin Laden! Bomb Sandton", eight hours of rallies by local and visiting protesters ended peacefully, delighting the hosts of South Africa's biggest international event since the end of its apartheid-era isolation.

Environment ministers were locked in tense talks yesterday, seeking to reconcile the demands of poor countries for more cash and other help with the rich world, which wants less corruption and more democracy in return.

There was some progress, but deadlock remained over issues from "green" energy and farm subsidies to sewers in the Third World, leaving ministers just one more day to clinch a deal before their leaders arrive.

"Now we're down to the crunch questions," Nitin Desai, conference secretary general, said yesterday.

States agreed a compromise on protecting endangered animals and plants, calling for a significant fall in the rate of extinction by 2010.

That agreement was weaker than a biodiversity pact set this year under which countries said they would halt the rate of biodiversity loss.

"It's watered down," said European environment commissioner Margot Wallstrom, but was pushed through by what she called "the unholy alliance" of the United States and developing countries.

Green groups were angered by what they saw as a rollback of the pact to save the 10,000 plant and animal species the UN says are at risk.

"These same ministers said six months ago they would halt the rate of loss. This is stunning," said Greenpeace's Remi Parmentier.

Among the first foreign leaders to arrive was Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, in a defiant mood about his policy of taking land from white farmers and giving it to landless blacks.

South Africa's Mbeki was also strident, telling a rally in a Johannesburg slum that the summit must end the "global apartheid" which has left millions in poverty.

"There is no reason that the poor of the world should be poor forever," he said in a speech at a stadium in the squalid Alexandra township. "The time has come for action."

Tired whoops of satisfaction were the only audible sounds as night fell over Sandton. "We have made our point and we are very happy," Trevor Ngwane, a South African activist, told protesters.

With the only violence verbal, Sandton will not join cities such as Seattle and Genoa as a site of battles over globalisation.

- REUTERS

Johannesburg Summit