A rchive Date
[ 21-04-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://canoe.ca/CNEWSTopNews/protest_apr21-ap.html
Hundreds of protesters gather at World Bank talks
By JENNIFER LOVEN - Associated Press
Sunday, April 21, 2002
WASHINGTON (AP) - About 1,000 shouting protesters gathered Sunday outside the downtown headquarters of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, demonstrating against the policies of finance ministers meeting inside.
At one point, about 100 of the protesters moved down a nearby street to block a police car slowly driving by. But they were stopped by police on motorcycles and horseback.
About 400 police at the scene had riot gear at the ready, including helmets and long batons, but did not use it. There were no arrests.
The protesters, who originally did not have a permit, were granted one Sunday for a march to the Washington Monument.
Assistant police chief Terrence Gainer estimated the crowd as high as 1,500, although other witnesses put the number at between 500 and 1,000.
Gainer said the protesters were mostly well-behaved. "The key is not to stereotype each other and just to keep cool," he said of the interaction between police and protesters.
Bill Wetzel, 22, a student at New York University, wore a skull mask and a sign. On one side, it said: Hello my name is capitalism and on the other: Hello my name is war.
"I see our culture spreading itself across the planet from America outward," Wetzel said. "What scares me is that this is a culture that puts money before everything else."
Some struck cymbals and bells. Others held aloft a 4.6-metre puppet of a woman, with a sign saying People over Profit hung around her neck. Protesters said she symbolized indigenous people affected by World Bank policies.
Inside the building, world finance officials spent the final day of their meetings focusing on how to more aggressively battle global poverty, including an education initiative intended to get more children worldwide, especially girls, into primary schools.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters marched in the city against causes ranging from globalization to the Bush administration's Mideast policy.
The spring meeting of world financial powers at the World Bank and IMF brought the protesters to Washington, but anti-globalization forces did not seem to mind sharing the stage with other causes.
Especially eager to be heard Saturday were Arab and Muslim marchers who chanted for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel.
Protesters carried banners saying: Drop debt, not bombs, and wore T-shirts proclaiming: We are all Palestinians.
Police said the turnout Saturday was larger than expected. Rallying at the Capitol after walking along Pennsylvania Avenue, the eclectic crowd mixed young communists, Black Panthers and Raging Grannies.
Authorities do not provide official crowd figures for demonstrations in Washington, but Police Chief Charles Ramsey gave a rough estimate of 35,000 to 50,000 on Saturday.
While no demonstrators were arrested during Saturday's events, 25 people were arrested later for unlawfully entering an underground parking garage and using it as a sleeping area for the weekend demonstrations, said police spokesman Quintin Peterson.
With protests planned to continue into the start of the work week, Ramsey said police were "going to have our hands full" Monday when several unauthorized rallies were expected during morning rush hour.
The White House had a front-row seat for a number of the protests but President George W. Bush was spending the weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland and missed the scene.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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