SOUTH AFRICA: The Earth Summit faces its first mass protest today, when land activists and anti-globalisation militants join forces in a campaign to have 20,000 of the world's poorest people descend on the UN gathering.
South African President Thabo Mbeki said yesterday he would address the protesters in Alexandra, the country's poorest slum, from where they will march to the summit, which is being held in a wealthy suburb some nine kilometres away.
The president's decision came after police backed down on a plan to ban protests at Alexandra.
Activists had vowed to push ahead anyway.
But the Justice Minister, Mr Penuell Maduna, warned he would not allow the chaos which disrupted world trade talks in Seattle, Washington state, in 1999 and at the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, last year.
"We won't allow the spirit of Seattle and Genoa to visit us. We will not allow a disruption of the lives of ordinary people," he told reporters.
Among the protesters are local and international land rights activists, debt-reduction campaigners, pro-Palestinian lobbyists, South African trade unionists and disgruntled members of President Mbeki's African National Congress.
They will march in two groups to Sandton, passing just outside the convention centre where more than 100 government leaders will meet for three days from Monday, bringing the summit to a climax. - (AFP)