Protesters who plan to demonstrate at next month's meetings of the IMF and the World Bank promised Monday that their Washington rallies would be peaceful and accused police of attempting to "demonize" their groups.
"If there's any violence during the meetings, it will come from the same people it always comes from -- the police," Brian Becker, co-director of the International Action Center, a group organizing the protests, told a news conference here.
Last week, the international financial agencies announced they would shorten their annual fall meetings from a week to two days to minimize opportunities for police-protester violence. The schedule curtailment came after clashes between protesters and police in Genoa, Italy, at the G8 economic summit last month left one demonstrator dead.
PHOTO: NY TIMES
The IMF/World Bank meetings will take place on Sept. 29 and 30 in downtown Washington.
The violence in Genoa has prompted the District of Columbia Police Department and federal authorities to make much more extensive preparations than they did before the April 2000 meetings of the IMF and World Bank
Last year, police expected around 10,000 demonstrators and put together a force of around 5,000 local police officers and federal agents to handle the situation.
Police closed most streets around the World Bank and IMF buildings, allowing only pedestrians and authorized vehicles in a mile-square area to prevent protesters from blocking delegates from attending the meeting.During those protests, police arrested more than 1,200 activists who tried to shut down those meetings, although no one was convicted of any crimes.
This year, police officials say they expect as many as 50,000 protesters. To deal with the demonstrators, local police will join with nearly 1,000 federal officers -- including personnel from the US Secret Service, FBI, National Guard and US Park Police -- to create a force of 8,200 people.
District police have bought 1,800 flame-retardant suits for officers in the civil-disturbance unit -- the front line against protesters -- and have outfitted many helmets with an attachment that steers flame and liquid away from the eyes.
Police also will use metal fences to keep protesters away from meeting sites and to cordon off travel lanes for the agencies' delegates
Sergeant Joe Gentile, a police spokesman, said Monday that the department "had no interest in stopping people from exercising their free speech rights." But he added that the violence in Italy underscored the need to protect the citizens and businesses of Washington.
"You have to be concerned about what happen in Genoa," he said.
Protest leaders called the police preparations unnecessary and unwarranted.
"There was nothing about last year's protests here that would make anyone feel the need to create a police state in the nation's capital," said Mara Verheyden-Hillard, a co-founder of the Partnership for Peace, an international anti-violence group.
She said none of the protest groups was calling for a shutdown of the meetings and that all the demonstrations will be non-violent.
"By making all these preparations, the police are trying to demonize the protesters as these `violent thugs,' and it's simply not true," Verheyden-Hillard said.
The World Bank provides long-term loans for economic development projects in poor countries, while the IMF arranges short-term loans directly to countries in sudden economic crisis, often imposing severe austerity measures on them in return for the aid.
Their critics charge that the World Bank's and IMF's policies impose harsh conditions on poor countries and favor Western creditors and large multinational corporations.
Protest organizers listed four demands for the World Bank and IMF:
First, open their closed-door meetings to the public.
Seecond, forgive debts owed to the two agencies by poor countries.
Third, end policies that protest groups say hinder access to food, clean water, education and health care in poor countries.
Fourth, stop support for projects that demonstrators say hurt the environments and cultures of poor countries, such as dams that force the relocation of people.
As part of their protests, demonstrators plan to surround the White House with a human chain and then march to IMF and World Bank headquarters.
Since the first such demonstrations erupted in Seattle two years ago, anti-globalization protesters have gathered whenever leaders of governments or financial institutions like the IMF come together. Like Seattle, many of the protests have turned violent, such as in Prague last year and Quebec City, Quebec, in April.
The protesters represent a mix of anti-capitalists, environmentalists, socialists, anarchists, advocates for the poor, opponents of the death penalty and feminists.
But the groups all believe that globalization -- which refers to the growing connections between countries in terms of trade and investment -- has led to a growing gap between rich and poor countries and the accumulation of power by international corporations.
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