(Reuters) IMF staffers resigned to calling off meetings

IMF staffers resigned to calling off meetings

Thursday, September 13, 2001
By Mark Egan, Reuters


WASHINGTON — Staff at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank were 
resigned Wednesday that their upcoming annual meetings at the end of September 
would be called off, saying an announcement was expected within days. 

"The meetings are going to be called off," an IMF source told Reuters, adding 
that the lender was awaiting word from the U.S. Treasury — the official 
host of the Washington summit — before making an official announcement. 
The source said an announcement was "at least two days away." 

D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey on Tuesday urged the international lenders to 
call off their meetings in the aftermath of terror attacks that caused both 
towers of New York's famed World Trade Center to collapse. The attacks also saw 
a hijacked plane crash into the Pentagon, costing many lives and putting local 
police and emergency workers into crisis mode. 

Washington Mayor Anthony Williams told local radio station WAMU Wednesday there 
were "strong arguments" in favor of calling off the meetings in light of 
security concerns. 

With tens of thousands of protesters expected at the meetings, slated to take 
place at the end of September, sources at the World Bank said the lenders had 
no desire to put Washington through any more trouble so soon after Tuesday's 
horrific events. Early estimates of the loss of life at the Pentagon range from 
100 to 800 people. 

"They will leave it for a couple of days before making an announcement," one 
World Bank staffer told Reuters. 

Among the problems posed for local police is how to manage crowd control in the 
face of an expected massive protest in Washington. Police had said they would 
rely heavily on officers drafted from New York and elsewhere to help staff the 
event. But given the massive operations in downtown Manhattan, it now seems 
impossible for the city to spare its own much-needed police to help Washington 
tackle antiglobalization protesters. 

Protests at global financial summits have grown increasingly violent recently, 
with one protester killed in clashes with police at a mid-July summit in Genoa, 
Italy. 

IMF spokesman Bill Murray and World Bank spokeswoman Caroline Anstey both said 
no decision had been made but that the meetings will be discussed in the coming 
days. "This is an issue that will be reviewed in the coming days," Murray said. 

As the host country of the meetings, the United States advises the World Bank 
and IMF about security details of the meetings in Washington. Police were 
bracing for as many as 100,000 protesters to take part in violent 
demonstrations against the policies of both institutions. 

One of the main protest organizers, the Mobilization for Global Justice, is 
mulling its options including whether to curtail or downsize some of the 
protests. 

The annual meetings bring together finance ministers and central bank governors 
from around the world to discuss the global economic situation. The event, 
currently scheduled for Sept. 29 and 30, had already been shortened to two days 
because of the threat of violent protests. 

In the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor in 1941, three hijacked 
planes slammed into the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center on Tuesday. 
Two of the planes demolished the New York landmark's two 110-story towers that 
have symbolized U.S. financial might. Later in the day a third and smaller WTC 
tower that had been burning also collapsed. 

Officials fear the number of victims could climb into the thousands at the 
trade center, where 40,000 people worked.