Associated Press | November 12, 2001 | TAREK AL-ISSAWI; Associated Press Writer
DOHA, Qatar - Jailed in France and tear gassed in Seattle, French farm activist Jose Bove had to raise a ruckus again to get to the World Trade Organization meeting in Qatar - only to end up feeling sidelined.
"They don't allow us to attend some press conferences, they exclude us from the debates, guards are everywhere and entire sections are closed" to all except delegates, he complained in an interview.
The irrepressible sheep farmer has been the star of a few brief demonstrations inside the hotel complex where the WTO session is being held. Each time, he and activists from other organizations invited as observers are quickly surrounded by cameras and reporters, but attention soon wanes. Bove accused the WTO of intentionally bringing the ministerial meeting to Doha, because "it is impossible to bring people."
WTO officials say Qatar was the only country that volunteered after the 1999 Battle of Seattle.
Bove was one of thousands of demonstrators who were in Seattle to protest the WTO meeting. That meeting failed to reach agreement on new trade talks amid clashes between the protesters and police.
Bove almost didn't make it to Qatar.
He said Qatari authorities stalled on issuing him a visa although he was accredited by the WTO to attend. He received it by fax a few hours before his flight, after he had gone public with his case.
"I don't know if it was delayed from the Qatari government, the WTO or the United States," he said.
Bove spent three weeks in jail in 1999 for vandalizing a McDonald's restaurant that was under construction. He was convicted of the charge in March and sentenced to three months in jail. He remains free pending appeal.
Bove said his mission in Doha was to tell the world that big, rich countries were pressuring smaller, poorer ones to agree to their terms of trade, depriving them of many of their economic mainstays and destroying their ecological systems.
"On all the issues, nothing has changed, and the small countries can't win against the big countries like the United States, Canada and the European states," he said.
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