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| FAO Prepares for Summit in Italy, Despite Gov't Fears
By Jorge Piña ROME, Aug 6 (IPS) - The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is going ahead with preparations for the Nov 5-9 World Food Summit, despite the Italian government's intention to ask it to hold the gathering in another country, for fear of a repeat of the recent incidents in Genoa. In the wake of the controversy triggered by the announcement by the centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi that it would seek a change of venue for the global conference, Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero said it was only a ``hypothesis'', and stressed that no decision had actually been reached. In an interview published Monday by the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Ruggiero said something must change in order to keep ``international conferences from turning into battlegrounds, which serve neither the interests of the poor nor of developing countries.'' He clarified that the idea of holding the FAO conference in a nation of the developing South had arisen prior to the meeting of the Group of 8 (G-8) most powerful countries in the world, ``to give developing countries greater visibility.'' The G-8 summit, which took place Jul 20-22 in the northern city of Genoa, was marred by harsh clashes between police and ``anti- globalisation'' activists, which left one dead and 200 injured. A parliamentary commission was set up to investigate the Italian security forces' crackdown on the protests that surrounded the meeting of the leaders of the G-8, which is made up of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. The preparations that got underway last November to organise the World Food Summit in Rome are moving ahead, Nick Parsons, FAO head of communications, confirmed to IPS. Parsons said the Rome-based United Nations agency had not received any request from Italy to hold the gathering elsewhere. He added that a Saturday meeting between the general-secretary of the Italian Foreign Ministry, Giuseppe Baldocci, and FAO Director Jacques Diouf was of an informal nature, held to express the concerns of the Berlusconi government. The FAO conference will have the same aim as the World Food Summit that took place five years ago in Rome: to give new momentum to efforts against hunger in the world. The world's heads of state and government will meet to assess the poor results achieved in the fight against hunger. According to the target set five years ago, the total number of people suffering from hunger was to be cut by at least 20 million a year, and so far the number has only been reduced by an average of eight million a year. That means it will be impossible to cut in half, by 2015, the current total of 800 million hungry people worldwide, as agreed at the 1996 summit, which was attended by the leaders of 185 countries, Parsons added. An estimated 7,000 delegates from around the world - including representatives of governments, civil society and reporters - are expected to take part in the November gathering, similar to the number who showed up five years ago. ``We are not questioning the legitimacy of the FAO, which is not the G-8,'' said Vittorio Agnoletto, spokesman for the Genoa Social Forum, which links more than 320 organisations. He added that the decision of how the umbrella group would participate in the FAO summit would be taken in September. The question of whether the venue for the coming global conference will be rescheduled has also become a new source of tension between the centre-right government of Italy and the centre-left opposition, which is opposed to holding the gathering elsewhere. The opposition accuses the Berlusconi administration of being incapable of holding an international conference in Italy. The president of the European Commission, Italy's Romano Prodi, also expressed his opposition to choosing another host country for the conference, referring to the duties that a country must assume, and underlining the need ``not to cave in to the blackmail of violence. ``Governing means assuming responsibilities towards one's own country as well as the international community. It is an honour for Italy to be home to the FAO, from which duties and obligations arise, and to host the UN agency's meetings,'' he stated. Nor does the Vatican look kindly on a change of venue for the coming international conference. ``Rome cannot allow itself, five years on, to relinquish its role as the global capital of the fight against hunger,'' stated an official, although the Vatican has not taken any formal stance on the issue. Pope John Paul II took part in the previous summit and, according to the Vatican spokesman, plans to do so again. The pontiff, he said, will insist on cancellation of the foreign debt owed by poor countries as a fundamental step towards eliminating hunger. Rome
is the headquarters of the three UN agencies whose basic mission
is fighting hunger in the world: FAO, the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Food Programme (WFP).
(END/IPS) . |
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