3,000 landless set up camp at UN racism meet in S. Africa
( 2001-08-30 16:07 ) (7 )

Some 3,000 people have set up a makeshift camp in Durban, South Africa, to protest against their landless status ahead of a UN conference on racism.

They are camping, without a supply of running water, in seven huge tents in a sports field at the Berea Rovers Club for four days, Andile Mngxitama said.

Mngxitama, a spokesman for the Landless People's Movement, said non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from around the world had donated cash to help them.

"People are saying what is the point of staying in hotels ... when they go back, they don't have running water, they don't have land, they don't have food," he said.

The landless want to raise awareness of their plight at a five-day NGO forum which opened on Tuesday ahead of the UN World Conference Against Racism beginning on Friday.

Heads of state and ministers were due to arrive in South Africa on Thursday to take part in the week-long UN meeting, likely to be acrimonious over the issues of restitution for slavery and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"This shows that the poor are in tents and the rich are in the Hilton, but the issue must be put on the table that landlessness is equal to racism," Mngxitama said.

"Land cannot be a property of the few, land is a social good, it is a national asset and all those who need it should get it," he said.