Saturday, May 31, 2003
Saturday, May 31, 2003 |
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By Vaiju Naravane
Mr. Bush who gave the interview in Washington on the eve of his departure for the G-8 industrialised nations' summit in Evian, a French spa town on the opposite shore from Lausanne across the expanse of the Leman lake said: "No, no. No sanctions. I'm not mad. I mean, I'm disappointed and the American people are disappointed. But now is the time to move forward.'' French officials were clearly relieved and happy at the American decision to bury the hatchet. Senior U.S. officials including the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and the Attorney-General, John Ashcroft, have repeatedly said France would face `consequences' because of its dogged opposition to the war in Iraq. Saying it was time to be realistic, Mr. Bush declared his country was prepared to work closely with France on a number of issues including the fight against AIDS and international terrorism. He said he shared the French President, Jacques Chirac's concern for Africa's continuing economic woes. But Mr. Bush and the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, will come under some pressure at Evian to explain their failure to find Iraq's cache of weapons of mass destruction. "The press corps is going to observe the G8 summit as a confrontational meeting. That is not so,'' Mr. Bush told journalists before he left for an extended tour that would include Russia, France, Eastern Europe and West Asia. He described the meeting as "an opportunity to talk with some who agreed on Iraq and some who did not about how we move forward.''
Protests
Amid thunder, lightening and lashing rain, the first anti-globalisation protests got under way in the Swiss town of Lausanne with demonstrations turning violent despite tight security. Protestors carried banners saying "Bush is not sustainable'' and "No to G-8 colonialists'' With thousands of young demonstrators pouring into both Lausanne and the alpine villages surrounding the French city of Annemasse where an alternative forum is being held just ahead of the G-8 industrialised nations summit, police are finding it difficult to control crowds. Lausanne is almost totally barricaded, as are Geneva and the nearby French towns of Fernay Voltaire and Annemasse. Evian, the French resort where the leaders of the world's wealthiest western nations and Russia will meet from June 1-3 is like an isolated fortress, totally out of bounds to press and public alike. Heads of State and Government from the U.S., Britain, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Japan and Russia will discuss ways to put the flagging world economy back on track, problems of global security, international terrorism, debt relief, poverty and development aid and the fight against AIDS. The Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who arrives in Lausanne on Saturday will be housed across the lake from Evian, the venue of the summit, with other leaders from developing countries who have been specially invited to attend the summit. Other developing country leaders invited to attend the Enlarged Dialogue Meeting that precedes the Summit are: President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, President Bouteflika of Algeria, President Obasanjo of Nigeria, President Mbeki of South Africa, King Mohammed VI of Morocco as Chair of the Group of 77, President Wade of Senegal, President Fox of Mexico, President Lula da Silva of Brazil, President Hu Jintao of China, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Mahathir Mohammed of Malaysia. Leaders of Africa's NEPAD or New development Programme will also hold talks with the G-8 leaders. This corner of France and Switzerland has been almost totally shut down in preparation for the summit with exceptional security measures in place and a total of 8000 special troops and police units deployed to control crowds and demonstrators. The press has been housed in hotels spread across three Alpine villages and will be bussed to the press centre at Publier every day in a costly and time-consuming exercise.
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