Protests Vs. IMF, World Bank Held

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Protest groups hoping to repeat their success in Seattle by shutting down the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank conducted two small, peaceful protests on Tuesday under the watchful eye of police.

All of the activities were part of a weeklong Mobilization for Global Justice that has attracted many of the same groups opposed to global capitalism that successfully disrupted meetings last December of the World Trade Organization in Seattle, forcing authorities to declare a state of emergency and call out the National Guard.

The protest groups are hoping to use human chains and other tactics employed in Seattle to block intersections on Sunday and keep finance ministers attending the opening IMF sessions, but District of Colombia Police, backed up by federal authorities, have studied tapes of the Seattle demonstrations and hope to avoid the mistakes of authorities there.

Police on Tuesday kept a watchful eye as several dozen demonstrators marched from the U.S. Capitol to the World Bank in an ``Economic Way of Cross'' to demand debt relief for the world's poorest countries.

Carrying chains and white crosses with the names of countries and the amounts of their foreign debt burden, the demonstrators handed out passages from Dueteronomy and Leviticus calling for the forgiveness of debts.

Both the IMF and World Bank, under pressure from the United States and other rich donor countries, have instituted programs to forgive a greater portion of the debt of the world's 40 poorest nations, but the demonstrators contend that the effort has so far provided too little in the way of debt relief.

A separate small band of protesters marched from the residence of the Colombian ambassador to a local office of the giant mutual fund company Fidelity Investments to protest international support for Colombia as the country's president, Andres Pastrana, arrived in Washington for an official visit to seek congressional approval of a $1.6 billion emergency assistance program for his country.

The protesters targeted Fidelity because of its ownership of stock in Occidental Petroleum, which is locked in a standoff with a native Indian tribe in Colombia over oil drilling rights.

Vincent Loprochio, a spokesman for Fidelity, called the protest at the firm's K. Street office ``fairly uneventful.''

Police said there were no arrests made at either protest. Seven demonstrators had been arrested on Monday outside of the World Bank building.

Police said five of the arrests came after demonstrators blocked two lanes of Pennsylvania Avenue during the morning rush hour. Authorities said two other demonstrators were arrested trying to scale the World Bank building to drape a protest banner.

Authorities removed mailboxes in the neighborhood around the IMF, World Bank and George Washington University, which announced that the campus would be closed and classes cancelled from 10 p.m. Friday until 8 a.m. Tuesday, April 18, the day after the IMF-World Bank meetings are to end.

President Clinton, who flew into Seattle hours after after police had battled demonstrators near his hotel in December, will be a continent away this weekend in California.