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Protesters clash with police outside economic summit |
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September 13, 2000
MELBOURNE (AP) - It was an unlikely meeting. An American merchant banker in a crisply pressed suit stood Tuesday under a graffiti-strewn railroad overpass discussing the global economy with protesters dressed in tattered jeans and camouflage fatigues. Thomas Russo, vice chairman of Lehman Brothers Inc., was jostled and shoved as he left an economic summit but minutes later he was chatting with a group of seven protesters about their concerns over globalization. He told them to call him Tom. "They pushed me around a bit," he said of the earlier confrontation. "I knew I couldn't do anything about it because it would have started a riot." Unhurt and unperturbed, Russo began chatting with protesters. "You want to hear what they have to say," Russo told The Associated Press. "These people are sincere, they are good people. They have a view and somehow or other you have to incorporate their view into your way of thinking." Melbourne police were not so accommodating. At least 22 protesters were hospitalized and scores more injured in a series of clashes that marred a generally peaceful second day of the three-day Asia-Pacific Economic Summit, which has been disrupted by thousands of protesters in the latest manifestation of displeasure at the rise of the global economy. One police officer was hospitalized with breathing difficulties after an early morning scuffle. And in a worrying development for the Sydney 2000 Olympics that open Friday, many protesters from Melbourne will also be staging demonstrations in Sydney. "The people we are protesting against here ... will be the same corporations who are all over the Olympics putting their brands on what is essentially a corporate Games," said protest organizer David Glanz. While delegates including Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates inside Melbourne's Crown Casino complex discussed the recovery of Asia from its debilitating economic crises, a ragtag army of about 3,000 protesters, their numbers briefly swelled by about 5,000 labor unionists, condemned corporations as exploiting workers in developing nations and having poor environmental standards. After protesters stopped about 200 of the nearly 900 delegates from entering the casino on Monday, police took stronger action early Tuesday, charging with batons waving through blockades to allow buses carrying delegates into the complex. The police used the same tactics to get the delegates out again in the early evening. Protest organizers accused police of using excessive force. Police said the measures were appropriate. "What we have over the last few days is not peaceful protest but something verging on riot where we have had ball bearings, marbles, screws, glass and urine thrown at police officers," said Andre Haermeyer, police minister in the Victoria state government. Protest spokesman Stephen Jolly condemned the police tactics. "We've had a whole pile of protesters attacked by police on horseback," he said. "It's way out of line." Two protesters were arrested Monday, and one Tuesday. They were released and were expected to be charged later with assaulting police. Early Tuesday afternoon, about 5,000 union members marched from Melbourne's Trades Hall to the casino complex and staged a rally in support of the protesters. At the conference, hosted by the privately funded, Switzerland-based World Economic Forum, Gates, who canceled two afternoon functions amid security fears, said the protesters were mistaken. "World trade. If you block it, the big losers will be the poor people of the world," Gates said.
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