Anti-globalisation protesters scuffle with police in S Korea

SEOUL: Angry scuffles erupted in the South Korean capital on Sunday as around 10,000 anti-globalisation demonstrators protested a meeting of the World Economic Forum called to chart Asia’s economic growth strategy.

Accusing the Geneva-based group of pushing for free trade at the expense of Asia’s poor, protesters chanting slogans against globalisation marched on police barricades protecting the venue.

At least three demonstrators were taken to hospital to have head wounds treated following scuffles with police wielding shields and batons, witnesses said. Demonstrators, including farmers, labour union leaders and 100 foreign activists from Japan, India and other Asian countries, held placards reading "No globalisation" and "Asia is not for sale".

Several thousand riot police ringed the downtown hotel where some 180 officials and business leaders from 21 countries gathered for the regional Davos-style economic forum. The protesters, whom police said numbered around 10,000, denounced the forum as a pro-globalisation lobby harmful to the developing world. "We oppose WEF (World Economic Forum). Globalisation pushed by advanced countries is causing trouble to workers and farmers in Asia," the organisers said in a statement.

Some protesters scattered anti-US leaflets denouncing the US-led war in Iraq and a South Korean plan to send troops to the war-torn country. The WEF expressed regret over the protest, saying South Korean civic groups have "a misunderstanding about the WEF’s nature". The forum "is aimed to bring peace, stability and prosperity to the world through cooperation", it said. In the opening session, officials and business leaders expressed confidence in the future of Asia, driven by China’s continued economic growth, a long-awaited economic recovery in Japan, and an emerging India.

Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tam Keng-Yan said that China would continue to drive Asia’s growth despite fears of overheating. "The huge Chinese economy will remain a behemoth, the 800-pound gorilla of high growth in Asia," he said.

Despite uncertainties caused by the war in Iraq, the SARS epidemic, rising oil prices, fears of a China meltdown and of a rise in US rates, Asia’s economy was recovering at a healthy rate, said Heizo Takenada, Japan’s minister of state for financial services, economic and fiscal policy. He said Asian leaders should grasp the opportunity of economic recovery to pursue urgent economic reform. "There has never been a better time for all of Asia to create a virtuous cycle between reform and growth," he said.

http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/jun2004-daily/14-06-2004/main/main9.htm