Friday July 20 1:43 PM ET

G8 Demonstrator Death Sweeps Aside Worthy Words

By Dylan Martinez

GENOA (Reuters) - Street violence, including the fatal police shooting of an anti-globalization demonstrator, bleakly swept aside worthy words on the opening day of the Group of Eight summit of world leaders on Friday.

Black smoke and tear gas billowed over the Italian port of Genoa as tens of thousands of protesters vented non-stop rage at the rich countries' summit reviewing the world economy behind barriers of steel fencing and riot police.

The killing of a demonstrator at the height of the protests cast a pall over the three-day summit when it had barely begun.

It pushed into the background other issues like a pledge by the G8 leaders to donate over $1 billion to fight AIDS and a statement that the long-term economic outlook for the United States and Europe seemed good despite the current downturn.

Police said that in running battles with protesters a total of 62 people had so far been injured -- 30 from security forces, 28 demonstrators and four journalists.

Some 70 people were arrested, they said, as security forces kept waves of protesters away from the fenced off city center ''red zone'' where the summit was held.

In the police shooting, believed to be the first death in a series of riots over the past two years at such international gatherings, a group of demonstrators attacked a Carabinieri paramilitary police van with stones.

One was hit by two gunshots from the van after he threw a fire extinguisher at the vehicle, Reuters witnesses said.

The demonstrator fell to the ground and then was run over by a Carabinieri jeep that backed over him.

A police spokesman confirmed one protester was dead but refused to give details.

G8 WON'T BE CANCELLED

A medic who had been following the protesters said the demonstrator was shot in Piazza Alimonda, about two km (1.2 miles) from the summit site in a Renaissance palace.

``He was been hit twice, once in the forehead and once on the left cheek,'' Valeria Valerio, a medic with the anti-globalization Genoa Social Forum, told Reuters. ``He had blood pouring from his mouth.''

British prime Minister Tony Blair lamented how the world leaders had become trapped by the protests.

``We would prefer to be out there in a normal setting being able to meet people,'' Blair told reporters. ``But we can't because some of these demonstrators are so violent.''

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, host of next year's summit, said the group would not be deterred from meeting because of the violence.

``There will be no cancellation of the G8,'' he said, adding however that he still had not been able to decide where to hold next year's meeting. Some protests were as close as 300 yards from the Ducal Palace where a beaming Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi hosted leaders for a sumptuous lunch and discussions on the world economy.

Safe behind the anti-riot ramparts, leaders of the United States, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Canada reached an upbeat consensus on the stumbling world economy, a delegation spokesman said.

``The Group of Seven agreed that there was a positive outlook for the world economy,'' a German spokesman told reporters. A Japanese spokesman said the leaders saw ''significant room for a
strong recovery'' if appropriate policies were followed.

DEMONSTRATORS NOT IMPRESSED

Their optimism did not impress the tens of thousands of activists -- a volatile mix of anarchists, leftists and anti-poverty campaigners -- who converged on this crowded port city to demand immediate debt relief for the Third World and an end to uncontrolled globalization.

Thousands of protesters with banners reading ``Zero Debt'' and ``People Not Profits'' lobbed petrol bombs, broke shop windows and torched cars and garbage dumpsters.

Police fired tear gas and water cannon to hold back crowds which either defied them or reassembled elsewhere in the city.

Genoa's Mayor Giuseppe Pericu urged crowds at one city square to stand aside to allow police to pursue ``the groups of hoodlums who are destroying our city.''

His words fell on deaf ears.

At one point a group of 200 hard-core protesters besieged a local prison, shattering the windows and throwing a petrol bomb inside. Smoke billowed out, but demonstrators left the area after prison guards appeared on the wall above the street.

Genoa has been bracing for weeks against the kind of violent anti-globalization protests that have disrupted nearly every major international meeting for the past two years.

Surface-to-air missiles were placed at the city's airport to guard against any possible air attack and authorities threw up six-meter (20-foot) barricades around the red zone to stop demonstrators from getting near the leaders.

Italy said pledges for the creation of an international AIDS fund with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had reached $1.3 billion and could rise to $2 billion by the end of the year.

``$1.3 billion has been pledged and the hope is that the fund will reach between $1.7-2.0 billion by the end of the year,'' Prime Minister Berlusconi's spokesman told reporters.

He said the cash would be entrusted to a special task force, closely linked to the United Nations and its agencies.

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