By Bernama,
Sapporo, Japan : Several thousand activists from around the world gathered Saturday in Sapporo, capital of Japan’s northern prefecture of Hokkaido, to protest against the upcoming Group of Eight (G8) summit, scheduled in Hokkaido on July 7-9, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported.
The protestors, who had come from various areas of Japan as well as other countries and regions such as Greece, the Philippines, Indonesia and South Korea, started gathering at the Odori Park at the center of Sapporo shortly after lunch time.
The world’s most developed countries should largely be responsible for most of the wars, widespread starvation, food and energy crisis and, last but not the least, global warming, leaders of the protest said in speeches at the gathering.
More than 5,000 took part in the protest, said the organisers, which included non-governmental organisations in Japan, such as the Hokkaido Peace Movement Forum and the Hokkaido Peace Network.
The activists started what they called a “peace walk” along major streets in the city at 3pm and chanted slogans like” the Group of Eight has no right to decide for the whole world,” Xinhua reported.
According the the news agency, one of the banners they held read “against G8 Summit that harms the world environment” while another said the protestors were against “speculation in oil and food by imperialists and financial capital.”
Some of the activists put the images of the G8 country leaders on what looked like a skeleton, accusing the world’s most developed countries of causing wars and starvation in many places.
Police briefly clashed with protestors during the demonstration, detained a driver of a campaign vehicle and the window glass of the vehicle was broken. But the march of about 2 kilometers ended at another park in the city largely unaffected, Xinhua reported.
The G8 Summit 2008 will be held in the Japanese resort of Toyako and Japan has deployed about 20,000 security personnel in Hokkaido. The previous G8 summit had been typically the target of people campaigning on peace, anti-poverty and environmental issues.
There have been protests recently in Tokyo, too.