WorldView

Protests Fail to Shut Down IMF, World Bank Meetings

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JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Two of the most important world financial organizations are winding up their meetings here in Washington Monday after two days of sometimes violent protests.

CNN's Jonathan Aiken reports.

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JONATHAN AIKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police used tear gas and pepper spray to stop protesters determined to disrupt the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Two days of demonstrations ended Monday with a negotiated deal that saw hundreds of protesters cross police lines in exchange for being peacefully arrested.

CHIEF CHARLES RAMSEY, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: Most of the protesters through this whole thing were peaceful, but unfortunately we had some incidents that didn't necessarily need to happen but they did happen. But everybody kind of stayed calm.

AIKEN: Police say nearly 1,200 people were arrested over the past five days. Although the number of demonstrators on the streets Monday were far fewer than the estimated 6,000 to 10,000 protesters on Sunday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Single column center, 642.

AIKEN: ... police maintained their tight cordon around World Bank and IMF headquarters. The focus of these protests, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, were created by wealthy nations at the close of World War II. The bank issues loans and grants to needy countries. The IMF fosters stable economic relationships between nations by working with their central banks.

Protesters charged both groups have helped wealthier nations at the expense of the poor and burdened the Third World with billions of debt that might never be repaid.

AIKEN: Despite ongoing skirmishes with police, the bank meetings took place with delegates being bussed into the sessions before dawn.

THOMAS DAWSON, DELEGATE: The only lines we've had this morning are in the cafeteria that opened -- opened early at 5:30. AIKEN: While there were no reports of anyone being injured during the demonstrations, there were some close calls. Watch the police car coming up on the left.

The groups mobilized for these protests say they will continue to demonstrate when the leaders of the so-called G-8 meet in Okinawa, Japan this July.

Jonathan Aiken for CNN, Washington.

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BERNARD SHAW, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us from World Bank headquarters for more on this story, the organization's president, James Wolfensohn.

Mr. President, what do the protests outside tell you about your institution's policies?

JAMES WOLFENSOHN, PRESIDENT, WORLD BANK: Well, it tells us that we're not doing very good in communicating them. We're an organization that in fact is concerned with poverty and with making the world a better place, and the people outside don't seem to think so.

So the first thing that we need to do is to have better relations and better project ourselves.

SHAW: What was accomplished at these just-concluded meetings that relates to what the people in the streets were complaining about?

WOLFENSOHN: Well, we met today and we discussed a program that we're going to have on AIDS worldwide. We're going to provide really unlimited funding for the AIDS problem in Africa.

We talked about the linkage between trade and poverty and development, got the finance ministers to agree to courses of action there. All of these things are very, very important for the 1.2 billion people that live under a dollar a day.

SHAW: What is the main obstacle, the main obstacle to the World Bank forgiving, forgiving past loans.

WOLFENSOHN: Well, we've already started forgiving loans, Bernie, and in fact, we were responsible for the creation of this new debt initiative. But there's a limit to which any organization or any bank can afford to give up loans, because we have also borrowed money to lend.

SHAW: But some nations and some people argue that that is a political limit.

WOLFENSOHN: No, it's not. It's a financial limit. We -- we have a capital of a bank, like any other bank, and we borrow from people in the market. If they were prepared to forgive us their debts, then we would be able to forgive debts to others. But we do have a very substantial amount in what's known as IDA assistance, which is loans to the more impoverished counties. And we have a program now for substantial debt forgiveness to 40 countries.

SHAW: How can poor countries get debt relief quicker?

WOLFENSOHN: Well, the only that they -- we are asking of them is that they should have a program for social reform, where the savings should go into education and health care, and where they should have a sensible and noncorrupt environment in which we can give the funding.

That's something that not only the donor countries consider reasonable, but also the countries in development.

SHAW: Have you had any opposition whatsoever to a program of social reform from needy countries?

WOLFENSOHN: Well, you get it from time to time, and in some of the countries that we're looking at, nine of them at the moment are either at war or don't have a government. So there you don't even have someone to talk to.

But as you know, in a number of these countries, the tradition of social investment has not always been great. And so some of the work that we have to do is in fact to work with the government on those policies.

SHAW: World Bank President James Wolfensohn, thanks so much for joining us on WORLDVIEW.

WOLFENSOHN: Thank you.

SHAW: Quite welcome.

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