(19 Jun 1997) English/Nat
Leaders of the world’s richest democracies begin arriving in Denver Thursday for the Group of Eight Summit.
The city on the edge of the Rocky Mountains is making last-minute preparations to host the conference, which for the first time will include Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
From security challenges to worries over altitude sicknesss, Denver planners are trying to
cover every angle to ensure the gathering’s success.
Denver has put on its best face for the G-8.
The streets have been swept clean, flags fly and the people wait, hoping to welcome some of the most powerful men in the world to their mountain city.
A few even want sometime-saxophone player Bill Clinton to play in front of an audience.
Denver Mayor Wellington Webb says the city is ready.
SOUNDBITE(English):
"I feel good about where we are. I think that, you know, in the last 3 or 4 years we’ve had the Prime Minister of Israel, the Emperor and Empress of Japan, the Pope, and the Western Hemisphere Train Conference. So we spent a lot of time on preparation. I think these other events have also given us enough background in preparing for this one."
SUPERCAPTION: Wellington Webb, Mayor of Denver
That preparation includes stringing yards of fences and barricades to keep people away from the dignitaries and closing streets to prevent car bombs.
The world’s media is also putting everything in place to cover the summit.
More than 3-thousand journalists have been accredited for the weekend event, although tight controls over access will limit what they will see and hear.
Hotels are scrambling to prepare for the hundreds of people each delegation brings.
The Westin will host both the French and German delegations.
Germany’s Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President Jacques Chirac will stay in identical suites on opposite sides of the hotel.
Each suite costs 12-hundred dollars a night.
One hotel staffer joked that the common elevator between the two suites had been dubbed "Switzerland"–neutral territory.
Nearby at the Embassy Suites, a much more lavish arrangement awaits Russian President Boris Yeltsin, whose presence changed the summit’s name from the "Group of Seven" to the "Summit of the Eight."
The Presidential Suite has been decorated with 57-thousand dollars’ worth of furniture to cast a "masculine" feeling throughout, and secure phones have been installed by a squad of Russian technicians.
Aside from an office fit for a president, the suite boasts a vast master bedroom with a marble whirlpool bath at its centre.
U-S President Bill Clinton, playing host to the Group of Eight nations, will stay in a historic but unimposing hotel called the Brown Palace.
His security detail has already prepared his room.
The arrival of so many dignitaries is anticipated to be a headache for those trying to get around Denver, but summit planners have another worry as dignitaries and journalists come to the "Mile-high city."
Many of those coming from low-lying lands may have trouble coping with Denver’s thin air.
Health officials say that while altitude sickness is not life-threatening at Denver’s height, even healthy people can suffer.
SOUNDBITE(English):
"With our altitude, many people will notice that their breathing is harder, their heartbeat is faster. People even who are in good physical shape, who go running or climb stairs, will find that it’s not so easy at this altitude because we have a lot less oxygen to breathe. So they really need to take it a lot slower when they do things that involve exertion."
Health Medical Center.
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