March 17, 2001 Chile Police Break Up Protest of Development Bank
SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Police in riot gear fired a water cannon and tear gas on Saturday at a crowd in Santiago protesting an upcoming conference of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), which opponents accuse of fostering social inequality.
Waving banners and distributing flyers, about 500 people gathered behind the Fine Arts Museum in downtown Santiago, hoping to march to the Mapocho Station, where the 42nd annual IADB conference will be held next Monday to Wednesday.
They advanced one block before police on foot and on horses pushed them back and arrested some. The protest did not evolve beyond shouting matches and shoving. Later, protesters marched along a nearby pedestrian way, where police again broke up their march.
The protesters, who plan more action in upcoming days, say that the Washington-based IADB, which finances economic and social development projects, has widened the gap between the rich and poor.
``Our rights have been converted into merchandise. The IADB has been a financial, ideological and political ally in all of this,'' read one flyer distributed by a protester.
Another flyer accused the IADB of helping to ``eliminate'' labor rights and privatize health and pension systems.
On Thursday, protesters against the IADB tossed a smoke bomb into a McDonald's restaurant in downtown Santiago.
Protests so far have not come close to the magnitude of those in Seattle in December 1999, when anti-globalization activists staged violent demonstrations at the World Trade Organization's ministerial meeting.
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March 17, 2001 Italy Police Crush Globalization Protest
NAPLES, Italy (Reuters) - Thousands of anti-globalization protesters clashed with riot police in the center of Naples on Saturday, throwing rocks and petrol bombs in a demonstration against a conference being held in the city.
For 20 minutes police and protesters were engaged in violent hand-to-hand exchanges, the police using batons and teargas guns, the demonstrators hurling paving stones and swinging crow bars, before the situation was brought under control.
Police said at least 120 people were injured in the fighting including 70 demonstrators, 50 police and several journalists. A police commander was rushed to hospital with severe head injuries and doctors treated dozens of others for minor head wounds on the scene.
Sixteen people were arrested, police said.
``The situation is under control, but we remain vigilant,'' Naples police spokesman Nicola Izzo said.
A Reuters photographer on the scene said around 1,000 protesters were still idling near the scene of the clashes, in the heart of Naples' historic district, but that most had dispersed to other parts of the city.
As the fighting took place, police helicopters circled overhead, and riot truck and ambulance sirens rang out through the narrow streets of the port city.
Most residents barricaded themselves in their homes, while others watched the scenes of mayhem from the relative safety of fourth- and fifth-floor balconies.
``It was like guerrilla warfare,'' one Neapolitan said afterwards.
TOUGH MEASURES
Police were expecting demonstrations during a five-day meeting in the city of the Global Forum, a conference of political, finance and technology leaders who gathered to discuss the role of the Internet in government.
Delegates included Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato, interior ministers from several European and African countries, senior World Bank and IMF officials and the chief executives of dozens of global corporations.
More than 4,000 regular police, paramilitary Carabinieri and specialist bomb squads had been drafted into Naples in the past week to prepare for the threat of violence.
A kilometer-square area in the center was ringed off with steel fencing and squads of riot vehicles, while undercover police agents carried out extensive spot security checks.
Similar measures have been employed at meetings of the G7 industrialized nations and Russia in Palermo and Trieste earlier this year and are expected to be enforced when G8 heads-of-state hold their annual summit in Genoa in July.
Tight security has been imposed at dozens of summits and high-level finance meetings throughout Europe and the United States since huge anti-globalization riots destroyed a meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999.
Radical groups operating on the Internet organized to bring thousands of demonstrators by train from Palermo and Milan to Naples for Saturday's protest, where they were joined by thousands of unemployed.
Organizers said 25-30,000 people gathered at the main train station, before marching through the streets carrying banners declaring ``No Global Forum.''
They clashed with police after a tense stand-off and as they tried to gain access to the venue of the Global Forum behind the 30-foot walls of Naples' Royal Palace.
Police said the number of demonstrators was closer to 10-15,000.
Businesses had shut up shop in the center of town in recent days as police made preparations for clashes. Most businesses were untouched during the fighting, but the windows of several banks and a travel agency were smashed.