North-South Confrontation Inevitable at Rio

rio de janeiro, jan 31 1992 (ips) -- a north-south confrontation will be inevitable if industrialized nations try to impose their will on developing countries at the u.n. conference on environment and development (unced) in rio de janeiro this june, brazil's non-governmental organisations say.

brazilian psychologist and coordinator of the women's movement in the brazilian forum of non-governmental organisations (ngo's) rosiska darcy oliveira said industrialized countries have been rejecting the south's pre-summit proposals.

"now there is no climate of international negotiation so the conference will be a big north-south confrontation. the north will try to coerce the south," oliveira said.

but oliveira said she is sure the earth summit will take place as scheduled because ''the interests of the north are also at stake so they cannot disregard the conference''.

''should there be a confrontation, brazil can mediate because nobody will gain anything if the meeting breaks up,'' said tony gross, coordinator of the global forum '92, an organisation preparing for the international ngo conference to be held at the same time as the rio summit.

oliveira said ngo's should not get involved in the north-south dispute but should instead propose solutions to end it. she said ''civilized criticism'' is needed at the summit to analyse the present development model.

she said ngo's have many defects but their greatest advantage is that they work on concrete issues and not on abstractions. ngo's are looking forward to the dialogue between women, environmentalist,indigenous and other groups that could come up at the summit.

about 1,000 international organisations have registered for the brazilian ngo forum but only 100 groups have joined the pre-unced debates and discussions.

between june 1990 and january 1992 the forum has met seven times in search of common stand for the rio summit. the eighth meeting will be held in april in the brazilian city of belo horizonte.

jean pierre leroy, one of the forum coordinators, said the rio conference ''will be a chance to see where countries really stand, what is really being done and also to exert pressure on the different governments and groups''.

leroy, who represents the federation of social and educational assistance agencies (fase), criticized the brazilian government's insincere stand on the country's environment.

he said although the government is claiming to defend the country's rich natural resources against exploitation, it is at present preparing a patent law which will give genetic resources to big transnational firms.

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