Protesters rampage as world leaders aim to heal Iraq rift

ANARCHISTS and anti-capitalists rampaged through the streets of Geneva and Lausanne yesterday as world leaders clamped a harmonious face on a summit simmering with Iraq war disputes in France.

The Group of Eight major industrial powers struck a united front with pledges of billions of dollars to fight AIDS and hunger in poor nations in the French town of Evian.

Host France chose the Lake Geneva spa town of Evian for the June 1-3 annual meeting, knowing that narrow access roads made it easy to close it off to the often violent protesters who regard the G8 as a rich state club.

The meeting’s most closely watched moment was the welcoming handshake between French President Jacques Chirac and US President George W Bush, whose wartime differences led to angry recriminations on both sides of the Atlantic. They greeted each other with polite smiles, a brief handshake and small talk before walking into a luncheon with other presidents and prime ministers.

Mr Chirac, at a news conference later, praised Mr Bush for getting Congress to pass a $15 billion increase to combat AIDS in the developing world.

“Bush took a decision in this area that I would not hesitate to call historic,” Mr Chirac said. He said France would triple its AIDS spending to 150 million, and European Union officials said the 15 member nations are expected to commit about 1 billion in new funds at a summit in Greece later this month.

In an annual summit ritual, tens of thousands of protesters staged demonstrations in French and Swiss regions beyond the heavily guarded security perimeter of the lakeside summit. They supported causes from anti-globalisation and environmentalism to forgiveness of Third World debt and fears over genetically modified foods.

A small Irish group were among 1,000 protesters who blockaded one of the bridges on the Swiss-French border to stop officials from accessing the village of Evian.

The 60-strong group, travelling under the umbrella of Globalise Resistance, reported no trouble and said that the police presence was very low key.

In Geneva, home to the World Trade Organisation and some of the world’s richest private banks, police fired anti-riot pellets and tear gas against gangs hurling stones and bottles.

However, that left the Swiss lakeside city of Lausanne, where some of the invited Third World leaders were staying, and Geneva to bear the brunt of the protesters’ fury.

Swiss police officials estimated the crowd at 50,000. However, protest organisers said that it numbered 120,000.