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Thousands of protesters besiege ADB meeting |
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May 8, 2000
CHIANG MAI, Thailand, MAY 7 (AP) - Thousands of demonstrators bulldozed their way past Thai riot police Sunday, besieging a hotel where the Asian Development Bank was holding its annual meeting and demanding an end to policies they said punish the poor.
Meanwhile, the United States cautiously welcomed an agreement reached between 13 Asian nations to come to the rescue of each other's currencies to fend off economic crises like the upheaval that struck the region in 1997.
The United States and Japan also ruled out membership in the Manila-based bank for North Korea, rebuffing an appeal by South Korea's finance minister for help in bringing the reclusive North into the international financial system and possibly increasing stability on the peninsula.
Outside, 4,000 protesters inspired by demonstrations in Seattle and Washington, D.C., against multilateral economic institutions caught police by surprise and stormed over barricades to lay siege to the Westin Hotel.
The demonstrators converged at a narrow bridge leading to the hotel and were initially stopped by hundreds of police. Then they powered forward and mowed down crowd-control barriers, pushing the police back to mid-span. Women screamed and shoved for breathing space in the crush.
The police did not use their clubs and eventually allowed the crowd across. They gathered across the street from the hotel, with 2,000 police preventing them from going further. Police also took up positions inside.
A standoff endured several hours, but there were no further clashes. The protesters drifted off in the late afternoon to set up a camp on the other side of the river. The police left afterward.
At least five people were slightly injured in the morning scuffle, but no one was reported badly hurt. Five protesters were arrested and released.
"It hasn't interrupted any of the meetings going on inside, but we're very aware of them," said N. Cinammon Dornsife, executive director for the U.S. at the ADB. "We're definitely keeping an eye on it."
Kazuo Sumi, a Japanese activist, said one Thai demonstrator had threatened to commit suicide Monday, when the conference ends, if the ADB did not meet their demands.
"We did not plan for this violence, but we knew we had to reach our goal, in front of the Westin Hotel," said Dawan Bhanhasbee, 35.
Like many of the protesters, Dawan lives in the Klong Dan area outside Bangkok, the capital, where the Manila-based development bank is funding a mammoth wastewater treatment plant. Nearby villagers say the project will ruin their lives.
The ADB claims that millions will be served by the plant, which will treat waste from heavy industries, and villagers will benefit from cleaner waters they fish and use for farming. The villagers say they didn't cause the mess but are suffering the most from the cleanup.
Along with 38 non-governmental groups, they demand that the bank stop funding the project and cease making loans that increase indebtedness of poor nations and hurt farmers and the poor.
Myoung-ho Shin, an ADB vice president, replied in a letter that the ADB would study their demands and wanted to meet their leaders in June for "fruitful talks." Protest leaders called it a stall tactic and wanted a better answer Monday.
Saturday, finance ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Japan, China and South Korea agreed to set up arrangements that would protect each other's currencies to fend off future economic crises.
Details remain to be filled in, but the plan stops well short of the proposal by Japan in 1997 to create an Asian monetary fund, which was shot down by Washington, fearing it would rival the International Monetary Fund in rescuing stricken economies.
The more modest proposal, seen as part of a long process to give the region more cohesion and international clout, was backed Sunday by Edwin M. Truman, the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for international affairs.
"We have long supported regional cooperation, in this region and others," Truman told a news conference. "We think this is a fine idea. But the nature of financial arrangements depends on the details."
Truman and Kiichi Miyazawa, Japan's finance minister, gave a cold shoulder to South Korea's appeal for the ADB to extend assistance to North Korea. Truman called North Korea "an international terrorist state."
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