3 June 2007Yahoo! News
About a thousand anti-globalisation and anti-poverty campaigners are convening in Mali on Monday for a forum to counter the G8 summit of rich states due in Germany this week.
The five-day summit in Sikasso, a Malian town 370 kilometres (230 miles) south of the capital Bamako, will tackle debt, food security and immigration, as well as the creation of an alternative to the World Bank.
Participants were expected from Benin, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Europe, said Barry Aminata Toure, head of Mali's African Coalition for Debt and Development, which groups about 60 NGOs.
Toure blasted the G8 for reneging on aid pledges it made at the 2005 summit in Gleneagles.
"The rich countries did not keep their word, (and) this is why it's up to the African countries, countries of the south, to take charge of themselves," said Toure.
"The 'all for show' of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, controlled by the capitalists, no longer works. We must take charge of our destiny," she said.
The G8 gathering in Scotland two years ago vowed to increase aid to developing nations by 50 billion dollars a year by 2010, of which 25 billion dollars would be earmarked for Africa.
It was also agreed that the multilateral debt of 18 of the world's poorest nations would be immediately scrapped.
