U.S. Pledges $16 Million for IMF Security Police Expect 100,000 Protesters
_____IMF Protests_____
By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, August 24, 2001; Page
B01
The Bush administration will reimburse the District for up to $16 million of
the projected $29 million cost of providing security for next month's
meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington,
officials announced yesterday.
The deal fell short of the city's requests for aid in preparing for as many
as 100,000 protesters.
Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Margret Nedelkoff Kellems said the balance
left to the District to pay was "not an ideal outcome, certainly," and she
said the city intended to press the two international development agencies to
shoulder some expenses in the city where they are headquartered. Otherwise,
she said, the District would use its emergency reserves.
"The federal government recognizes that, in this instance, the costs for
managing this event should not rest solely on the taxpayers of the District
of Columbia," Sean O'Keefe, deputy director of the U.S. Office of Management
and Budget, said in a letter to Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D).
"We're pleased we were able to come to terms," Kellems said at a news
conference with D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey.
IMF spokesman William Murray said the fund has not received an aid request
from the U.S. government and that payment would be unprecedented. "The fund
and the bank take the traditional view that host countries are responsible
for providing a secure working environment," he said.
The agreement capped financial preparations for the Sept. 29-30 meetings of
the two groups. The dates heightened anxieties in the perennially strapped
District, because they fall at the end of the city government's fiscal year.
Authorities said they expect mostly peaceful protests. But violence has
erupted at recent world economic summits in Seattle, Quebec and Genoa, Italy.
Last month's Group of Eight meeting, at which protesters rioted and one was
shot dead by police, reportedly cost the Italian government $100 million.
Protesters, though, have decried the efforts and questioned the motives of
officials.
Some organizers accused D.C. police of inflating the numbers of expected
demonstrators to justify the $29 million plan.
"It's inappropriate for police forces to be used as private security for
unpopular global financial institutions," said Matthew Smucker, 23, an
organizer with Mobilization for Global Justice, which he said plans legal,
nonviolent protests that would not warrant extra security.
Ramsey said: "If we have large numbers of people show up but they basically
remain peaceful . . . then we'll be okay. . . . If they engage in
large-scale, violent behavior, then we're going to have a problem with or
without this money being in place, because of the numbers that we're talking
about."
Of the federal funds, up to $11 million will go to transport, house, feed and
pay more than 3,000 law enforcement officers from other jurisdictions who
will be brought in to virtually double the District's police force for four
days.
The government also committed to purchase up to $4.9 million worth of riot
gear, medical supplies and operating equipment, including protective suits
and helmets for about 2,000 police, rescue and emergency workers. The
equipment will remain federal property.
The District agreed to pay $6.7 million in expected overtime costs for
District police and other local government workers, $4.4 million to speed up
installation of new police communication and video equipment and $1.5 million
for various other expenses.
The $29 million does not include a $2 million, nine-foot-high concrete and
metal fence planned to cordon off swaths of downtown to create a security
zone around IMF and World Bank headquarters, meeting sites and the White
House. That expense has been taken over by the Secret Service, D.C. officials
said.
"We're confidant we can do everything we need to do to ensure security,"
Kellems said. "The city can afford what the city is putting up."
The Bush administration agreed to repay the District for expenses by Dec. 31,
in time for the city to include the sum in its annual financial statements.
Staff writer Manny Fernandez contributed to this report.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54044-2001Aug23.html
An unconstitutional use of taxpayer funds by the minions of the criminal
international banking cartel.
Bard
