Summit to harness IT revolution for poor amid Internet, rights battles
TUNIS, Nov 15 (AFP) A UN summit opens Wednesday in Tunis with the aim of
harnessing the IT revolution for poor countries, as rich nations squabble over
control of the Internet and a row brews over freedom of expression in its host
Tunisia.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who launched the information summit
process for developing nations in 2001, is due to join 20 government leaders
and about 10,000 participants at the three-day conference and trade fair.
The world body's International Telecommunication Union, which is organising
the World Summit for the Information Society, has set the ambitious target of
connecting all villages in the world to the Internet in 2015.
The number of top level participants has dwindled and few Western leaders
were expected to hear the call to allow poor nations to reap the economic and
social benefits of the Internet and modern telecoms.
Most of the top-flight political attendance was expected to come from the
developing world, including Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, Nigerian President
Olusegun Obasanjo, Senegal's Abdulaye Wade and Venezuelan president Hugo
Chavez.
A first summit two years ago in Geneva disappointed poor countries after
rich nations failed to back a so-called "digital solidarity fund".
The fund, which is partly meant to be financed by a one percent levy on IT
services and equipment contracts, was relaunched this year with the help of
some European cities and regions.
Obasanjo and Wade were due to launch a public appeal for more support on
Wednesday, the fund's Geneva-based organisers said. It has so far gathered 5.5
million euros (6.4 million dollars) from its 21 members.
The run-up to the summit has been dominated instead by a battle over
control of the Internet pitting the United States against most of the 170 other
nations involved, including European Union countries.
The technical root of the Internet, which is crucial to seamless global
networking, is currently managed by the California-based Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), under tender from the US government.
"It's as if the national telephone networks of all the countries in the
world was run from Los Angeles," a European diplomat said.
The Internet has expanded and its global economic and social importance has
grown exponentially since the US-centred ICANN system was introduced in 1998.
The EU, Japan, Iran and several other nations believe the time is ripe for
international oversight.
But Washington is firmly opposing the step, warning that regimes that do
not allow freedom of speech might be in a position to have leverage over the
Internet.
Meanwhile a huge security perimeter was thrown around the exhibition hall
north of Tunis, while thousands of armed police guarded key sites and
crossroads throughout the Tunisian capital.
Summit logos, national flags and portraits of Tunisian President Zine El
Abidine Ben Ali were also draped along buildings and roads.
The decision to host the summit in Tunisia prompted protests from human
rights groups, including Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF - Reporters without
Borders), which accuse the Tunisian government of clamping down on freedom of
speech.
The row intensified earlier this week after a French journalist, who was
investigating human rights issues in Tunisia, was attacked and wounded by an
unidentified group of men in the capital.
On Monday, Belgian Public television said one of its crews was assaulted in
Tunis while they were covering a human rights gathering.
France has formally asked the Tunisian government for an explanation for
the incident involving its citizen. Western diplomats at the summit said they
were keeping a keen eye on the human rights issue.
President Ben Ali has accused seven Tunisian opposition figures of lacking
patriotism after they began a hunger strike last month to claim greater freedom
of speech.