Hong Kong braced for violent WTO protests

HONG KONG braced for potential violence as anti-globalisation protesters kicked off a flurry of demonstrations yesterday against this week’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting of nearly 150 rich and poor nations.

Around 3,000 protesters waving signs reading “Junk the WTO” and “Life is not for sale” marched in a carnival atmosphere in the shade of skyscrapers in one of the world’s main financial centres.

Some 10,000 activists are expected to converge on Hong Kong as the city holds a pivotal ministerial meeting from December 13-18 in a bid to get stalled global trade talks back on track.

“We feel very frustrated with multinational enterprises,” said Kenzo Sasaki, owner of a 20-cow dairy farm north of Tokyo, who led a group of Japanese farmers wearing Samurai clothing. “Our main message is for food sovereignty. Junk the WTO.”

Supporters of the talks say a trade deal could generate billions of dollars in benefits and possibly lift millions out of poverty, but many opponents say it would largely benefit richer nations at the expense of developing countries.

Protesters will be dogging the meeting’s every move, and will include an estimated 1,500 South Korean workers, students and farmers.

Worried about a repeat of the violence which marred previous trade meetings in Cancun and Seattle, police stepped up patrols yesterday near the Hong Kong Convention Centre, the venue of the meeting.

Elizabeth Tang, head of the Hong Kong Peoples’ Alliance co-ordinating the demonstrations, said she expected any violence to be on a very small scale and easily handled by police.

“People all over the world are feeling that the WTO and the way it has been functioning so far has failed to lift the poor out of poverty,” Ms Tang said.

Han Dongfang, a fellow marcher who led workers at the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protest, said China was richer for joining the WTO in 2001 but workers’ rights had languished.