Amazon Summit is Criticised for Blaming the North

bonn, feb 12 1992 (ips) -- one of germany's main conservative newspapers, 'die welt', has criticised the eight-nation amazonian summit which ended in brazil last week, for blaming northern industrialised countries for the world's pollution problems.

the editorial, titled, 'help, yes, but let yourselves be helped', asserted that ''complaining and finger-pointing won't solve anything.''

the presidents of ecuador, bolivia, colombia, brazil, guyana, and suriname, and the official delegates of venezuela and peru signed a declaration last tuesday which they will present to world leaders at the u.n. conference on environment and development (unced), to be held this june in rio de janeiro.

according to experts, the amazon region is made up of 7.4 million square kms, and is home to the greatest diversity of biological specimens in the world.

in their declaration, the countries of the amazon region say that industrialised countries are responsible for the world's pollution. but the german paper criticised the amazon summit for blaming northern industrialised countries and the world economic order for their ''unsatisfactory level of development.''

''both the united states and europe had difficult and humble beginnings,'' the editorial said. it charged that latin america's own social structure impedes development.

the paper asserted that latin america's ''feudal structures, and protectionist tariffs that isolate economies from external competition instead of keeping pace with industrial progress,'' prevent them from acheiving desired levels of development.

the editorial asserts that the summit would not be a success unless there is a combined effort on the part of industrialised and developing countries -- one which is without mutual blame.

the environmental policy chief of the national population department of colombia, eduardo uribe, told ips that the summit declaration ''will in no way please the developed nations, but it was time to present it.''

at the june conference, commonly known as the 'earth summit', heads of state will discuss measures for pursuing sustainable development in an effort to preserve the environment for future generations.

in the meantime, german media houses are increasingly saying that third world nation's are equally to blame for global environmental problems.

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