On 29 Jul 2000 17:50:54 -0000 Robert Kemp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On Fri, 28 Jul 2000 06:27:49 -0700 Clore Daniel C <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: FEATURE-Prague braces for "Seattle" type" IMF protests Updated 10:04 PM ET July 26, 2000 By Klara Gajduskova PRAGUE, July 27 (Reuters) - Czech officials insist that the IMF-World Bank meetings they are due to host in September will not become "another Seattle" but anti-capitalist groups say the violence in Prague may be worse. Czech government organisers have said they will take sweeping steps to protect September's IMF-World Bank annual meetings from the clashes that have become a feature of global economic summits. Radical groups have taken to the Internet aiming to "Turn Prague into Seattle!," recalling wild scenes last December when 40,000 demonstrators, protesting against everything from the killing of sea turtles to the concentration of economic power, paralysed World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks and the U.S. city in days of clashes with police. Washington police appeared better prepared in April for the International Monetary Fund/World Bank spring meeting, but that did not stop protesters from preventing some delegates from entering the venues. Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested. About 11,000 regular Czech police will be on duty for the nine-day Prague event which will bring together an estimated 15,000 participants from more than 180 countries, including senior government ministers, central bankers and business leaders. At least that many protestors are expected to descend on the 1,000-year-old Bohemian capital, straining its infrastructure and testing its young post-communist police force. Organisers will close off a swath of land surrounding the Prague Congress Centre, a former communist convention hall rebuilt for the September 19-28 meetings at a cost of $60 million which the battered Czech economy can ill afford. Prague has not seen so many foreigners since Warsaw Pact troops invaded the Czech capital in 1968 to end the "Prague Spring" democracy movement. This time Czech leaders say they will be ready. "Certainly many scenarios exist, but we don't expect any Seattle," chief organiser Zdenek Hruby told Czech Television this week. WEB NOISE After leaders of the Group of Eight, the world's leading industrial powers, failed to approve new debt relief for poor countries at a relatively subdued summit in Japan last weekend, protesters vowed to take their fight to Prague. At the Okinawa summit, Ann Pettifor, the British director of the Jubilee 2000 group, which campaigns for debt relief for developing countries, said that protest groups might vent their frustration in the Czech Republic. "It will help to mobilise many more thousands of people in Prague than would have intended to go," Pettifor said. "They have triggered a tidal wave of anger and outrage." A spin around the Internet may bear this out, with some of the more radical groups claiming that Seattle was insignificant compared with what could happen. One site -- http://www.destroyimf.org -- calls for "a mass working class protest against the IMF summit in Prague." "The challenge to the workers' movement is to shutdown that summit with the biggest international demo Europe has ever seen," it says. An anarchist news agency on the Internet, A-Info [sic], has denounced non-governmental organisations that have tried to protest against globalisation as too soft, and called for more aggressive tactics. "They (protest groups) believe that imperialism and blood-sucking international institutions can somehow 'reform' themselves... An absolute delusion," A-info writes. Many plan to organise a counter summit with workshops and street marches in Prague. A-Info calls for "sweeping away the illusions" and "smashing" the IMF and World Bank which they blame for a long list of the planet's ills. [Note: A-Infos does not write the news stories and communiques they carrry. -- DC] The diverse groups on the Internet, most of which are based in the United States and western Europe, range from passive environmentalists to radical anarchists vowing to destroy capitalism. PRAGUE RESIDENTS TO FLEE The daily talk of trouble and paralysis has made many Prague residents fearful enough to plan to move their families out of town for the last week of September. Schools will be shut and many businesses will be on skeleton staffing. Czech officials say privately that Prague, a relatively cheap destination, was likely to attract demonstrators wanting to disrupt the first major global conference in Europe since Seattle. The country has already seen daily battles with environmentalists at the controversial Temelin nuclear power plant in southern Bohemia where fuel was loaded this summer for test firing which is expected to start before the IMF meeting. Another hero of the anti-globalisation groups, the French farmer Jose Bove, is due to be sentenced on September 13 for destroying a McDonald's restaurant in France, providing a further rallying point. Czech officers have been in intensive training with advisers from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation while organisers have appealed for "discussion, not confrontation." President Vaclav Havel is inviting peaceful protest groups to join him for a pre-summit meeting with top representatives of the institutions attending the summit. How many will accept the invitation for a calm debate within the confines of Prague Castle is far from clear. -- --------------------------------------------------- Dan Clore The Website of Lord We�rdgliffe: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/index.html The Dan Clore Necronomicon Page: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/necpage.htm "Tho-ag in Zhi-gyu slept seven Khorlo. Zodmanas zhiba. All Nyug bosom. Konch-hog not; Thyan-Kam not; Lha-Chohan not; Tenbrel Chugnyi not; Dharmakaya ceased; Tgenchang not become; Barnang and Ssa in Ngovonyidj; alone Tho-og Yinsin in night of Sun-chan and Yong-grub (Parinishpanna), &c., &c.," -- The Book of Dzyan. *** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Feel free to distribute widely but PLEASE acknowledge the source. *** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The end is in the means as the tree is in the seed. - Mahatma Ghandi ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.angelfire.com/mi/smilinks/thirdeye.html <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. 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