JOHANNESBURG, 1 September — Thousands of protesters marched on the Earth Summit yesterday to demand world leaders end the “global apartheid” dividing Johannesburg’s poor shanty townships from the summit halls in a wealthy white suburb. A rainbow coalition of the disaffected, numbering 15,000 or so, marched without incident under massive police guard from the shacks and open sewers of Alexandra township to the towering complex of chic restaurants, hotels and opulent shopping malls in Sandton, eight km (five miles) away yet worlds apart.

They applauded as their frontmen denounced US President George W. Bush as a “terrorist”, called Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon “a war criminal” and railed at South African President Thabo Mbeki for failing to help the millions of people in this country without jobs, land or basis services. For all the inflammatory slogans — “Osama Bin Laden! Bomb Sandton!” was one — and fears of the summit mayhem that hit Seattle and Genoa, eight hours of rallies passed off peacefully, delighting the hosts of South Africa’s biggest international event since the end of its apartheid-era isolation.

The march took place under a banner reading: “Social Movements United — Earth, Food and Jobs” and protesters said it was hypocrisy that 8,600 delegates to the UN conference met in comfort while the poor continued to suffer. The march also included several hundred Palestinians as well as environmentalists and anti-globalization protesters.

Some of the summit’s non-government participants from foreign green groups also joined the marches: “This summit is being hijacked by trade and the corporate agenda,” said Michael Brune of the California-based Rainforest Action Network. “Factory Gases and Waste are Killing”, “Hands Off Iraq”, “Globalize the Intifada”, “Stop Thabo Mbeki’s AIDS genocide” or “Bush, you belong in the bush” were among banners and T-shirts.

The marchers arrived at the summit in two groups, the first militant wave numbered about 10,000 and dominated by the local, militant Landless Peoples Movement who had been joined by international land rights and anti-globalization activists. Next came about 5,000 more moderate protesters from the Congress of South African Trade Unions and South Africa’s ruling African National

Inside the negotiating rooms, beleaguered ministers and top officials from nearly 200 governments haggled throughout the day to narrow differences, notably between rich and poor states, on a sweeping UN plan to reduce poverty and save the environment. They, however, cleared a key hurdle late yesterday, leaving around a dozen left before world leaders gather here tomorrow.

The deal, centering on references to the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, appeared to be a concession by the United States and green campaigners suspected that a secret trade-off lurked behind it as delegates horse-traded into the night.

The deal on Kyoto was one of 14 sticking points that have pitched the United States against the European Union, and the rich world against the poor, in efforts to craft a “Plan of Implementation” for rooting out poverty and protecting the Earth’s deteriorating environment.

Under the compromise, the draft says that states which have already ratified the pact “strongly urge states that have not already done so to ratify the Kyoto Protocol in a timely manner.” Bush ditched Kyoto in March last year in one of his first acts in office, declaring that its obligations to trim greenhouse gas pollution were unfair and too costly for the American economy.

The protocol requires industrialized countries to trim output of carbon-based gases by a deadline of 2008-2012. (The Independent)