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Mon, September 8, 2008 |
Last Updated: September 05,2008 3:34:15 pm
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July 21st, 2008, By NewsExtensions.com
G8 summit opens with focus on Africa
 G8 summit opens with focus on Africa The NewsTony Blair's flagship promise of more aid for Africa, secured at the Gleneagles summit three years ago, is being pulled apart as "backsliding" leaders assemble for a G8 meeting in Japan. Behind the NewsMore than 20,000 police have sealed a secluded mountain resort in northern Japan as the world's top leaders gather, with protests kept far away from the summit venue.
Japan imposed a no-fly zone across a stretch of its northern island of Hokkaido as US President George W. Bush arrived for three days of talks with 22 other leaders in the remote lakeside town of Toyako. Hundreds of activists held demonstrations for a second straight day in Sapporo, the closest major city to the summit area, on issues ranging from labor rights to Tibet to global poverty. "Down with the G8 summit!" chanted some 100 demonstrators from left-wing labor unions, who were nearly outnumbered by riot police with helmets and shields. Activists of British-based charity Oxfam dressed up in oversized masks of the G8 leaders held up a mock cheque offering $50 billion for poor countries - a promise made at the summit in Scotland in 2005. "It is unacceptable that in the 21st century a woman dies every minute in childbirth or pregnancy due to lack of health care," said Oxfam campaigner Akiko Mera. "The G8 must keep their promises and deliver health care for all." Separately, dozens of pro-Tibet demonstrators rallied to denounce Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is due to attend an extended session of the G8, chanting, "We can't forgive China!" But the demonstrations were far from the summit venue, a hilltop hotel some 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Sapporo where the leaders will discuss issues including soaring oil and food prices, climate change and global conflicts. Filipino leftwing activist Renato M. Reyes, Jr. said that he and his colleagues were trailed across Hokkaido by police, with some even sleeping in their car outside of the demonstrators' hotel. Police and media shuttle buses were the only vehicles allowed onto the roads heading to the venue, where banners fluttered in the breeze to greet world leaders. Those working in tourism said that, like an Olympics, the summit can sell the town's name as a resort, which has been recovering since a volcanic eruption eight years ago. Despite the arrests, the demonstrators were relatively peaceful compared with previous G8 summits. Last year militant activists threw Molotov cocktails and stones during demonstrations in Germany that drew tens of thousands of protesters. Comments
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