Demonstrators destroy a police motorcycle
during the march. (AP photo/Marco Ugarte)
Posted on 03/17/2006 3:22:39 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
As people from 130 nations meet in Mexico City to debate ways to bring clean water to people who are poor, there were skirmishes between protesters and police.
Groups of young demonstrators threw rocks and smashed a patrol car and a motorcycle in clashes that continued into Friday morning.
Protesters march "in defence of water" near the site of the fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City on Thursday. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
The government news agency Notimex reported that some people were found carrying homemade gasoline bombs, the Associated Press said.
On Thursday, police stopped thousands of demonstrators marching toward a convention centre where the seven-day World Water Forum is being held. The forum, co-organized by the Mexican government, opened earlier in the day.
In a country facing enormous problems of scarce and unsafe water, many of the marchers were colourfully dressed Indians rather than the black-clad urban guerrillas often seen in anti-globalization protests.
Mexico's Indians and rural people bear much of the burden of untreated sewage coming from Mexican cities.
According to Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite news channel, the protesters saw the forum as a front for privatization, an idea promoted in some countries by international agencies such as the World Bank.
In Bolivia and elsewhere, corporate takeovers of public water systems have led to bitter disputes about rising prices and unfulfilled promises.
Words that do not go together...
"clean water" and "Mexico"
Water War Ping!
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