Nearly 300 protestors have been arrested as demonstrations against the IMF and World Bank initiated Friday morning

WASHINGTON , September 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. Police have so far arrested nearly 300 anti-capitalist protesters in a show of force Friday ahead of meetings of global finance chiefs.

By mid-morning 298 protesters had been arrested, Washington Police Chief Charles Ramsey told reporters. "We are going to be as tolerant as possible," Ramsey said, but "we will not tolerate property destruction."

Early Friday hundreds of black-helmeted riot police waving nightsticks, supported by 20 officers on horseback, faced off some 400 protesters in Freedom Plaza who at first were not allowed to move, but subsequently marching to within two blocks of the White House on their way down K Street .

About 100 demonstrators, described by the Washington Post as members of an anarchist group called Black Box, broke off from the group and began pulling up newspaper boxes and pounding on buses as they walked down the center of the street.

Riot-gear clad police surrounded the crowd with batons drawn and clashed with protestors, some carrying rocks in backpacks and throwing smoke bombs, near a Citibank branch.

Police then rushed in and arrested 56 after a Citibank window was broken. Protesters were bundled into a city bus commandeered by the authorities and officers were also seen driving rental vans in case of mass arrests.

Approximately 1,700 officers from other jurisdictions around the country, some as far away as Chicago and Lowell , Mass. , were assisting about 1,500 Washington police officers, D.C. police said.

One masked activist insisted that the protesters "were not violent until the police started the violence."

The protester added that some of the demonstrators were arrested "for the crime of being in the street" and fighting against the ideals of the World Bank and IMF.
 

Other protesters were arrested on a major intersection further along K Street when they peacefully sat down in the street to block traffic.

Throughout the morning, police penned in crowds of protesters at city plazas.

Mass protests by thousands of anti-globalization activists were planned for Saturday and Sunday, including plans to surround the meetings site and "quarantine" the delegates.

"They are pre-emptively arresting people" ahead of the weekend marches, said Aaron Kreider, who came down from Philadelphia for the protests. "It really takes the steam out of the next event."

"These people that are apprehended are going to miss several protests," Ramsey said Thursday, "because they'll be behind bars."

Commuters were largely unperturbed, though many workers chose to take a day off. A threatened slowdown of the Beltway, a major highway surrounding the city, did not materialize.

Group of Seven (G7) Finance Ministers were to meet later Friday at Blair House, the government's official guest residence near the White House, against the backdrop of the risk-laden global economy before they join partners from the 184-member International Monetary Fund and World Bank for a weekend of talks to grapple with the global downturn and the threatened impact of any war in Iraq.

"The world economy is growing but it is slower than expected," Britain 's Finance Minister, Gordon Brown, told reporters. "We must be vigilant about the fragility and risks in certain circumstances around world."

Brown said the G7 talks would encompass the background to the global economy, including rising oil prices amid fears of an attack on Iraq , slow growth in Europe and the need for financial sector reform in Japan .
"Our view today will be that while monetary activism last year made a difference to the growth prospects in the world... we need an activism in economic reform this year to match that."

In addition, finance ministers of the Group of 24, or "G-24" - 24 countries the collective task of which is to coordinate the positions of developing nations on monetary and finance issues and to ensure that those positions are adequately represented to the IMF and World Bank.

Their meeting was scheduled at IMF headquarters on Friday, ahead of the IMF-World Bank annual meetings, which begin Sunday, September 29, reports CNN.

The G-24 consists of eight member-states each from Africa , Asia and the developing nations of Europe , and Latin America and the Caribbean .

Demonstrations are continuing and protestors say they plan top spring surprises for the police throughout the day. And protest organizers themselves have said they were not sure exactly what to expect, because no one person or group is privy to all the protest events staged by a variety of groups and organizations advocating various causes demonstrating both independently and in conjunction with one another.

"None of us knows it all," said Rae Valentine to the Post. Valentine is one of several Anti-Capitalist Convergence organizers. "Our ideology is based on the fact that we're decentralized and non-hierarchical."

Although protest numbers appeared low Friday – 20,000 were expected – protest organizers say people and groups are still coming for demonstrations planned throughout the weekend.

"Every minute that goes by, five to 10 people walk through the door," Valentine said to the Post. "There's a lot of momentum."

CNN reports the protesters object to what they see as unfair IMF policies that benefit wealthier nations at the expense of developing nations. The IMF disagrees, saying it is the poor of the world who are benefited by its policies.

Despite the outside protests and global economic uncertainty, IMF Managing Director Horst Koehler urged policymakers to avoid despair in the G7 and weekend IMF-World Bank talks.

"Prospects for the global economy have clearly weakened amid considerable financial market volatility," he told a news conference Thursday.

"But it would not be productive in our view now to dwell in undue pessimism or even doom or gloom."

Global economic output is projected to grow 3.7% in 2003, down from the IMF forecast in April of 4.0% growth, the IMF said in a semiannual report released in the run-up to the meetings.

It tipped growth of 2.8% this year, unchanged from the previous forecast despite a surprise spurt in growth at the start of this year.

"The global economy has shown remarkable resilience in the face of multiple shocks of the past two years," Koehler said.

Fears of war in Iraq would not derail the recovery, he said.

"Of course the problem is uncertainty in this situation, and discussion about war will not reduce uncertainty," he said.

"But we do not think that this has an immediate impact on the recovery. We expect the recovery to go ahead. The IMF will not be disturbed by these discussions."

Meanwhile, as officials from Argentina pleaded for a resumption of aid, the IMF warned officials they could lose even humanitarian aid if Buenos Aires fails to keep up with payments to multilateral lenders.

Some reports suggested that Argentina may be unable to get any commitment for a resumption of major aid programs suspended last year and could even cut ties to the IMF if it is unable to roll over its debts to the institution.

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