Angry G8 protesters plan 100,000-strong demonstration

Up to 100,000 anti-capitalist protesters, many enraged by the fatal police shooting of a young protester, will take to the streets in Genoa today to denounce world leaders attending an already besieged G8 summit.

In a sign of their apprehension about today's events, the eight leaders, joined by the heads of the United Nations and European Union, issued a hurried appeal for calm.

Interrupting an evening banquet hosted by Italian President Mr Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, they issued a statement saying they were grieved by the 23-year-old Italian's death in yesterday's opening day violence and urged protesters not to follow provocateurs.

The death of Genoa resident Mr Carlo Giuliani, now a martyr to the protesters, overshadowed the launch of a global war chest to help fund the fight against AIDS and a better-than-expected assessment of the stuttering world economy.

But even promises by the rich industrialised nations, plus Russia, to give cash amounting to more than $1.2 billion did not satisfy AIDS activists because the pledges fell far short of the UN target for 2001 of $10 billion.

"For the first time, we are seeing the emergence of a response to this deadly disease that begins to match the scale of the epidemic itself," UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan said in a statement.

But the Global AIDS Alliance, of humanitarian, religious and social justice groups, said it was deeply disappointed.

"The pledges to the fund proposed at Genoa are still outrageously low," Alliance spokesman Mr David Bryden said.

G8 leaders also reached an upbeat consensus on the world economy.

"While the global economy has slowed more than expected over the past year, sound economic policies and fundamentals provide a solid foundation for stronger growth," they said in a joint statement.

Earlier this week, G8 foreign ministers described mounting violence as alarming and called on Israelis and Palestinians to accept outside monitors to help implement a peace plan.

However, with the mood of anti-globalisation protesters angry, the leaders may yet find their discussions are again interrupted by events in Genoa.

Police said 184 people were injured in all - 60 members of the security forces, 114 demonstrators and 10 journalists.

A total of 56 people were detained, they said, as security forces kept waves of protesters away from the fenced-off city centre "red zone" where the summit was held.

© The Irish Times/ireland.com

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