Yahoo – AFP,
Anais Llobet, 18 Oct 2014
 |
While
delegates at the World Health Organization gathering were discussing ways
to
stop people lighting up, those representing the interests of the tobacco
industry
were doing their best to influence the outcomeSAGET (AFP Photo/Joel
Saget)
|
Moscow
(AFP) - A major conference in Moscow aimed at cutting global smoking rates this
week found itself grappling with another issue: how to stop the powerful
tobacco lobby from butting in on the debate.
While
delegates at the World Health Organization gathering were discussing ways to
stop people lighting up, those representing the interests of the tobacco
industry were doing their best to influence the outcome.
Officially,
lobbyists were banned from attending the week-long gathering that involved
government representatives from some 190 countries. But they still made their
presence felt on the sidelines -- and sometimes even inside the conference hall
itself.
 |
Russia's
President Vladimir Putin (R)
and Director-General of the World Health
Organization Margaret Chan (L) meet in the
Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow,
on
October 13, 2014 (AFP Photo/Vasily
Maximov)
|
"The
cigarette manufacturers insist on being an integral part of the debate to find
solutions," WHO director Margaret Chan told the roughly 1,500 delegates.
"But
allowing a place for the tobacco industry would be the same as letting the
foxes look after the chickens," Chan said. "Don't let them seduce
you."
International
officials at the biennial conference discussed -- and eventually agreed --
guidelines for taxes they hope will help stop a habit blamed for some six
million deaths each year.
But some
from the tobacco lobby turned a deaf ear to the trenchant warnings from
organisers and snuck into the conference in the area reserved for members of
the public.
Francois
van der Merwe, from the International Tobacco Growers Association, woke up at
6am to snatch his seat but was then among a group of lobbyists turfed out after
a vote by the delegates.
"We
don't need these members of the public here," said the Ugandan delegate
Sheila Ndyanabangi.
Van der
Merwe though argued that it was wrong to kick him out.
"I
represent thirty million farmers. Is it right that they expel me while they
decide my future?" he huffed to AFP.
For
anti-smoking activists the spat was part of a long-standing push by the
multi-billion dollar industry to try to stamp out any curbs on their business.
"These
places are almost all snapped up by people who work for the tobacco industry
and who walk the halls every day to convince delegates not to vote on tobacco
control measures," said Jesse Bragg, spokesman for Corporate
Accountability International.
Sideline
meetings
While the
lobbyists may have been chucked out of the conference itself that did not stop
them setting up meetings on the sidelines to try to get their point of view
across.
Persona non
grata Van der Merwe arranged a lunch for eight handpicked journalists to hear
his views.
Meanwhile,
the International Tax and Investment Centre, a group financed by the big four
cigarette producers, organised a conference in Moscow on the eve of the WHO
summit and invited all the delegates along.
"We
had to send around a note out explaining that it was not one of our meetings
and encouraging delegates not to visit it," said one of the organisers of
the anti-tobacco event.
"We
had suspicions about interference by the pro-tobacco lobby at our
conference."
The major
cigarette manufacturers have blasted the moves to exclude them from the talks,
with a spokeswoman for Philip Morris calling them a "flagrant
violation" of the meeting's commitments to public debate.
For
anti-tobacco activists, however, keeping the industry lobbyists out of the
discussion was much-needed.
"WHO
is facing a challenge: how to ensure the transparency of our conference without
allowing the tobacco industry to participate because they use the same desire
for transparency to threaten the whole process," said Bragg, spokesman for
Corporate Accountability International.
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