WASHINGTON — Thousands of anti-globalization protesters tried to block financial leaders from the world's richest nations from meeting Sunday, but they were beaten back by police wielding batons and squirting pepper spray.
Police arrested 20 protesters Sunday, bringing to 657 the number detained during in the last two days of demonstrations and dwarfing the 525 arrested during a week of similar protests in Seattle last year.
Washington Police Chief Charles Ramsey predicted more confrontations Monday as the financial leaders gathered for their sixth and final day of meetings with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Ramsey said he expected long traffic delays during Monday morning rush hour because protesters have vowed to arrive early to prevent delegates from attending meetings at the International Monetary Fund building. They accuse the global lender of hurting the poor and destroying the environment.
Protest organizers claimed they had 20,000 demonstrators on the streets of the capital Sunday. Police estimated 10,000 protesters attended one demonstration on the grassy Ellipse near the White House, a good-humored rally that drew supporters from causes ranging from AIDS to Third World rights.
Despite the protests, the Group of 10 industrialized countries and a key IMF panel met on time, discussing reforms to make sure the problems that caused the financial meltdown of 1997-99 do not occur again.
Police beat protesters with batons, fired pepper spray and rode their motorcycles into the crowd to try to break up demonstrations just blocks from the White House.
In what seemed to be an isolated incident, police appeared to use tear gas after skirmishing for several hours with the crowd, many of whom were wearing bandannas and masks. The use of force calmed the volatile situation.
"The use of tear gas is something we don't resort to unless we absolutely have to," Ramsey told a news conference. A police spokesman later said an investigation had been launched whether police had actually used tear gas on the protesters—a move only two top police commanders could authorize, he said.
Kevin Danaher, one of the co-founders of Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based human rights group, said he also witnessed one incident in which a police officer "gunned" her car into a crowd. "There's no way she didn't see them," he said.
A police spokesman had no immediate comment on the alleged incident.
While police acknowledged 637 arrests on Saturday, protest organizers claimed 900 were detained, 300 of whom were still in jail Sunday.
Like the anti-trade protests in Seattle last December, the demonstrators in Washington had undergone weeks of training and appeared to be highly organized. But unlike Seattle, the District police were swift to respond to attempts by protesters to disrupt the meetings here and even drew praise from some demonstrators.
"The police here are much better than they were in Seattle," said Alicia Leinberger, 32, a veteran of the protests in that port city last year.
But in a letter to Ramsey, the American Civil Liberties Union charged his officers prevented detainees from using toilets, denied access to lawyers and gave bad legal advice.
Most protesters were peaceful, but a minority, numbering several hundred black clad youths, made repeated attempts to break the police lines and run to the World Bank building, which is located several blocks from the White House.
In an earlier incident, body-armored police used batons "liberally," a witness said, as they clashed with about 500 protesters before they reestablished the security fence that had been set up to keep the protesters away from the meetings.
District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams defended the police action and said he was determined to prevent a repeat of the Seattle debacle, which involved widespread damage to property.
"What we have been trying to do ... is to try to prevent a replication of what happened out in Seattle. I think the vast majority of these demonstrators want to demonstrate peacefully," he told CBS television's "Face the Nation" show.
The activists, some carrying placards saying "Smash Capitalism," accuse the IMF and World Bank of foisting ill-suited economic policies on poor nations.
Protesters believe IMF and World Bank policies serve the interests of rich countries at the expense of the poorest people in the world. This is something the lending agencies deny but many of the criticisms are also shared by economists and members of the U.S. Congress.
Vice President Al Gore weighed in on the protests during a campaign stop in Los Angeles, describing World Bank President James Wolfensohn as a personal friend and someone dedicated to fighting poverty, environmental degradation and injustice.
"I think that the World Bank does a great deal to alleviate poverty around the world," the Democratic presidential candidate said, saying the bank would listen "with an open mind" to suggestions on how to better tackle such problems.
"But if the protesters simply condemn without offering constructive suggestions," he added, "that is another matter."
Although protesters were not able to block the meetings, they managed to delay some of the delegates.
Protesters surrounded a minibus full of delegates who were trying to get into the meetings, shouting "Shame!" and "Go home!" while banging on the bus with their fists as the worried delegates looked out.
After about 20 minutes, a squad of riot police, backed up by a dozen mounted police, dragged the protesters away from the minibus, throwing them to the ground and beating those who had sat on the ground in front of the minibus. "Peaceful protest!" the demonstrators shouted as they were beaten.
Although some delegates were delayed by the throngs of people, the IMF meetings went ahead as busloads of delegates were able to enter through a secure entrance.
Some fund staff spent the night in the building, and many delegates arrived at dawn before the crowds gathered.
But some, including Pedro Malan, Joaquim Pina Moura, Laurent Fabius and Tarrin Nimmanahaeminda, the ministers from Brazil, Portugal, France and Thailand, missed their meetings.
Adam Eidinger, a spokesman for the Mobilization for Global Justice, said the protesters scored a victory by delaying the delegates: "We have surrounded the World Bank and the meetings have been delayed. Basically, we accomplished our goal."