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CNN Saturday Morning News
Protesters Gather to Picket World Bank, IMF Meetings in D.C.
Aired April 20, 2002 - 09:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, in Washington, global politics threaten to wreak local havoc today. Thousands of protesters are expected to descend on the capital city, just as global finance ministers are meeting for their summit. Kathleen Koch joins us live now from Washington with more on this. Good morning, Kathleen.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kyra. As you can see behind me, the busses are just beginning to pull up on the Washington Mall here. We have seen busses coming in from Michigan, from Chicago, the latest one just pulled in from Buffalo, New York. And they are here for a variety of causes.
Right now, where we're standing, is the staging ground for the April 20 Mobilization to Stop War. Now, this is a group that initially came together to protest the U.S. at war against terrorism, the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan. And as the Middle East crisis escalated, they sort of switched their focus to protest the action there.
Now, what basically they're doing is they're gathering together with their signs right now. We have seen a variety of signs, reading things like "an eye for an eye makes the world blind." Or "stop killing in my name with my money."
Now, this is one of four marches, protests, that are going on around the city today. There are pro-Palestinian march, anti- globalization and World Bank protests. As you pointed out, the IMF and the World Bank are meeting as we speak. And then there are also other protests that are against the U.S. involvement in Columbia.
Now, the protesters are getting rolling at about 11:00 a.m. this morning. They're going to be converging at Freedom Plaza, which is just north of where we are right now, and then they'll be heading to the U.S. Capitol for a major rally around 3:00.
The protesters are promising to be peaceful. They're promising to cooperate with police, but already some arrests have begun. Yesterday, there were a group of cyclists who gathered on Capitol Hill, again, protesting all these different issues, and they began riding into downtown Washington. The police followed them, the police did not interfere until the point that the protesters on bicycles began to ride the wrong way down one-way streets. And at this point, police said you're endangering the community and you're endangering yourselves. And they had to arrest some 40 protesters, and also confiscate their bicycles.
Police are ready. They have stationed a mobile command post, Kyra, in downtown Washington, where they are monitoring dozens of cameras that have been put up around the nation's capital since 9-11. They have removed all sorts of objects that protesters could pick up and hurl either at police or into windows or that they could damage. So there are no trash cans, no mailboxes, no newspaper boxes on the streets of Washington.
They're taking every precaution, Kyra, but they're really trying to walk that fine line between balancing the protesters' right to free speech and then the very important job of protecting both the people of nation's capital and their property. Back to you.
PHILLIPS: Let's hope it stays calm. Kathleen Koch, we'll be checking in again. All right. Thank you.
Well, now for more on the meetings at the center of many of these protests, we turn to CNN's Louise Schiavone for more from Washington. Hi, Louise.
LOUISE SCHIAVONE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. Leaders of economies around the world are tackling issues that are common to them, as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund convene for their spring meetings. As a sidebar to the 183-nation meeting, finance ministers and central bank governors from the G-7 nations are also meeting. We're talking about the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
The core issues confronting these G-7 nations include foreign aid and how to spread it around, the challenge of crippling terrorism by choking off funding sources for terrorists, and overall, the state of the world economy. It goes without saying that the conflict in the Middle East and rising oil prices are worrisome to the world at large, and despite the fact that the IMF sees world economies emerging from a slump, these disruptions can make that recovery precarious. The World Bank and IMF intend to act as economic stabilizing forces with a special interest in boosting emerging nations.
On the World Bank agenda this weekend, third world aid, a global initiative, fair trade for underdeveloped nation, emergency and reconstruction assistance for Palestinians and assistance for Afghanistan. The groups are sensitive to complaints that the world's poor have not been helped enough, but as World Bank President James Wolfensohn asserted at the meeting's outset, we have come a long way -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: That's true. Louise, thank you so much.
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