Protest clouds over W.B.-IMF meet

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, APRIL 14. As small groups of protestors appear to be trickling into this city, the big question is what is going to happen over this weekened - when the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund will officially begin by way of several meetings of the Finance Ministers, their Deputies and others delegated for the purpose.

Demonstrators have vowed to shut down the city and prevent the Ministers from going about their business on Sunday; and law enforcement is not taking any chances. The police in this city are said to be carefully reviewing what took place in Seattle last November when the Third Ministerial of the World Trade Organisation was brought to a near halt by violent demonstrations that shut the otherwise peaceful city for several days. But Washington D.C. is different from Seattle, or so the argument goes.

Students at the George Washington University are upset that the authorities have shut down the campuses from today till Tuesday. Overnight stay for guests at dormitories has been banned and students staying in these dorms must show identification at the time of entry. Some students believe that the University is taking extreme steps in the name of `security'. But some others see it differently. ``GWU: Serve the students, not corporate greed,'' says a sign.

But the talk of noisy demonstrations over the weekend has businesses worried as well; and much of this has to do with what went on in Seattle when masked hoodlums went on the rampage wantonly creating damage to the local businesses. With the business houses in Seattle quickly putting plywood around their establishments, it looked as if the downtown of Seattle was bracing itself for somekind of a hurricane, or had been through one. But those who did not take precautions had to pay the price. Here in Washington D.C. many business houses normally remain closed over the weekend, but some of those who do remain open plan to stay that way, protests or not.

Thus far the protests have been few and the numbers are within manageable limits for the authorities. The police have been able to ask the demonstrators to keep to the sidewalks.

But no one is taking chances. If there was one major lesson out of Seattle it was not in the impressiveness of the numbers of demonstrators, the `techniques' of the riot control police or in the quantity of pepper spray used to disperse the crowd. It was the sober realisation that one act of vandalism can set off a chain of unpredictable consequences.

From the point of view of the mass media, especially the television, the focus is still on the spectacle in Miami-Dade County in Florida outside the home of the great uncle of Elian Gonzalez. And hopefully it will stay this way over the weekend however `tiring' this may be turning out.

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Section  : International
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