Bad Start for Swiss at Earth Summit

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, August 27, 2002

Bad Start for Swiss at Earth Summit

The Swiss delegation to the Johannesburg Earth summit has lost one of its key members on the conference's opening day, Swiss Radio International (SRI) reported on Monday.

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The Swiss delegation to the Johannesburg Earth summit has lost one of its key members on the conference's opening day, Swiss Radio International (SRI) reported on Monday.

Former Green party parliamentarian Rosmarie Bar has returned to Switzerland after being attacked by an armed robber in her hotel room on Sunday. The report said that she will not be replaced.

She had been scheduled to speak at a seminar at the Swiss sustainable development platform in Johannesburg.

Security has been stepped up at the Swiss delegation's hotel, the Sandton Village House, after Bar was shot at by a robber who broke into her room. Her attacker fled empty-handed after the bullet missed.

According to SRI, the South African authorities expressed their regret over the incident. Intelligence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said no arrests had been made but that an investigation was underway.

SRI reported that Bar was not the only Swiss delegate to be attacked on Sunday. Another delegate from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in Johannesburg was also robbed earlier by the same attacker while she slept in her room.

A guest said the incidents were almost certainly isolated casesof robbery and were not being perceived as politically motivated attacks on the Swiss delegation.

Daniele Waldburger, spokesman for the Swiss delegation in Johannesburg, said all the delegates were in shock but remained determined to continue with the country's program of seminars and activities at the United Nations summit.

"Of course this is quite a grave incident," SRI quoted Waldburger as saying. "But we do not believe this was aimed at Switzerland or the Swiss delegation," he added.

Waldburger has called on the summit organizers to make sure that security is tight not just at the conference venues, but alsoat all official hotels being used by international delegates.

According to the report, security in Johannesburg has been stepped up for the summit, with the deployment of at least 10,000 additional police and troops.

Their role is to protect delegates and to prevent the violent mass demonstrations that have marred recent gatherings of global leaders in Seattle, Genoa and elsewhere.

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