WASHINGTON, April 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Police on horseback, motorbikes, bicycles and on foot, surrounded groups of protestors here Sunday, April 21, as demonstrators, described as boisterous and whimsical, flashed placards and chanted slogans against globalization and other causes. 

By mid-morning, several thousand had gathered on the capital's rectangular stretch of grass known as the Mall in the second day of a weekend of protests for an array of causes, including the Middle East crisis. 

However, news agencies report that the crowds for a third day of protests in Washington were much smaller than on Saturday, when tens of thousands marched in support of Palestinians and against U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration's “war on terrorism.” 

On the street, some groups marched shouting debt relief slogans while others, stolidly wearing all-black including black bandanas across their faces, carried banners denouncing "corporate rule". 

Secret service joined with the police to keep control the demonstrators, and there were few scuffles. 

Several hundred protesters, hemmed in by police, rallied outside the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings, but police, who restricted the rally to a triangular park across from the headquarters of the World Bank and IMF, where policymakers were gathered this weekend, may have outnumbered them. 

"I've watched IMF and World Bank policies crush rural economies from the Rio Grande to the other end of Chile," said Cliff Bradley of Missoula, Montana. 

"It has to be obvious to senior IMF and World Bank officials that these policies don't work." 

"The World Bank, the IMF and their policies are a vehicle of oppression and it's time that people stood up against it," said Sarah Sholis, an Ohio Wesleyan University student who helped to hold a banner that read, "Drop Debt, Not Bombs," reported news agencies. 

Connie Hall of Illinois walked with the Chicago Religious Leadership Network, reports that Washington Post. Commenting on why she was in Washington protesting World Bank and IMF policies, Hall commented that the institutions "undermine democracy in the most nefarious way." 

Some of the demonstrators taunted police by rocking the metal barricades hemming them in, while chanting slogans. 

But there were no serious incidents Sunday, following other demonstrations Saturday that were peaceful, focusing on the U.S.-led antiterrorism campaign, the Middle East crisis and U.S. anti-drug policies in Colombia. 

As Saturday's demonstrations were dominated by pro-Palestinian protests against Israel occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Sunday's marchers focused on global economic issues and World Bank and the International Monetary Fund policies.  

Protesters say their policies hurt developing countries and benefit multinational corporations. On placards and in chants, they called for the cancellation of Third World debt and a change in U.S. foreign policy that they charged is motivated by corporate greed, reports the Post. 

The Mobilization for Global Justice, one of the groups organizing the rally here, renewed its call to open all World Bank and IMF meetings to the media and the public; cancel all impoverished country debt to the two institutions; and halt what they called "socially and environmentally destructive projects" such as oil, gas, and mining activities, as well as dams that include forced relocation of people. 

All police leave in Washington was cancelled for the weekend as they braced for thousands of demonstrators in various events around the city, including many expected to protest the financial gathering. 

Washington police said they are working with the U.S. Capitol Police, U.S. Park Police, the uniformed division of the U.S. Secret Service, and other federal agencies. 

The number of protesters Saturday for several rallies reached well over 70,000.