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500 arrested Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/South/09/27/imf.protests/index.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2002/US/South/09/27/imf.protests/index.html
IMF protesters arrested in DC
'G-24' finance ministers are meeting
From Bob Franken, Shirley Hung and Mike Ahlers (CNN)
WASHINGTON (CNN) --Hundreds of protesters targeting a meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank clashed with police on the rainy streets of Washington on Friday, with at least 500 arrests as of noon EDT, according to District of Columbia Police Chief Charles Ramsey.
Ramsey said additional people were taken into custody without formal arrest, including 40 picked up for blocking a sidewalk on Connecticut Avenue.
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.
District of Columbia police arrested 21 people when they tried to block the intersection of 14th Street at Independence near the IMF meeting site. Another 40 people were arrested nearby in a skirmish with police that included rock throwing and smoke bombs.
In the first incident, 25 people sat down in the middle of the intersection, four of them chained together. Police gave the protesters two minutes to move, and only four complied.
Police sawed the chains of the four who were chained together. All 21 will be charged with failing to obey police order, said D.C. Metropolitan Police Capt. Ralph McLein.
In the second incident, police clashed with about 150 protesters at a Citibank branch at the intersection of Vermont and K Streets.
The executive director of the environmental group Greenpeace USA, John Passacantando, was among those arrested during the day, according to Greenpeace officials, who said Passacantando was not participating in the protests but had been swept up in the arrests while riding his bicycle to work.
Between 200 and 300 protesters gathered in a park near the site of the IMF meeting, but police said there had been no problems there.
About 1,500 D.C. police officers were being assisted by 1,700 officers from other jurisdictions around the country, D.C. police said.
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 -- were meeting at IMF headquarters on Friday, ahead of the IMF-World Bank annual meetings, which begin Sunday.
The G-24 consists of eight member-states each from Africa, Asia and the developing nations of Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Finance ministers of the Group of 7, or "G-7," were also to meet on Friday to discuss economic and financial issues among the major industrial countries -- Canada, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States and Italy.
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