CZECH REPUBLIC: ANTI-GLOBALISATION PROTESTERS ATTACK POLICE GUARDING CENTRAL HILTON HOTEL DURING IMF AND WORLD BANK SUMMIT

Record ID: 355582

  • Title: CZECH REPUBLIC: ANTI-GLOBALISATION PROTESTERS ATTACK POLICE GUARDING CENTRAL HILTON HOTEL DURING IMF AND WORLD BANK SUMMIT
  • Date: 28th September 2000
  • Summary: PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC (SEPTEMBER 26, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. SLV NIGHT SHOTS OF RIOTERS MARCHING 0.08 2. SLV RIOTERS VANDALISING IPB BANK; RIOTERS VANDALISING MCDONALD'S; RIOTERS VANDALISING KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN; POLICE; POLICE AND RIOTERS; RIOTERS THROWING STONES; POLICE ADVANCE; RIOTERS THROWING STONES; STANDOFF BETWEEN RIOTERS AND POLICE (28 SHOTS
  • Embargoed: 13th October 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PRAGUE. CZECH REPUBLIC
  • Reuters ID: LVABCJKP0FO11YM7JOX29G2PI01Q
  • Story Text: Dozens of anti-globalisation protesters have attacked
    police guarding Prague's central Hilton hotel in the second
    straight of violent street actions against IMF and World Bank
    meetings in Prague.

    Police said about 40 to 50 activists assaulted them
    outside the glass-plated hotel in Prague on Wednesday
    (September 27) where many delegates to the annual meetings are
    staying but were pushed back and dispersed. The incident
    kicked off a second day of violence in the Czech capital in
    which dozens of people, including one Russian and one Japanese
    delegate to the meetings, were hurt in Tuesday's scuffles,
    which continued into late evening hours.

    On Wednesday other parts of the city were quiet in the
    morning, following violent clashes in which hundreds of masked
    protesters threw Molotov cocktails and cobblestones torn from
    sidewalks at police cordons guarding the IMF/World Bank
    meetings on Tuesday (September 26).

    A police spokesman said 422 people had been detained by
    Wednesday morning, but had no information about any charges
    being brought against them.

    Earlier on Tuesday police responded with teargas, batons
    and water cannon but the demonstrators managed to block
    thousands of guests inside the Congress Centre south of
    downtown Prague for hours and later smashed shops and
    restaurants in the city centre.

    Security guards, clearly rattled at the ugly protests
    outside, at one stage refused to let delegates in or out of
    the Prague Conference Centre, where the meetings are being
    held. The protests continued in the evening, with gangs
    rampaging through Prague streets and smashing windows.

    The protests had completely blocked access to the
    conference centre for several hours.

    Participants, including International Monetary Fund
    Managing Director Horst Koehler, left at the end of the day's
    business on special trains from a secured metro station,
    avoiding the chaos on the streets outside.

    The demonstrations were reminiscent of December's
    so-called "Battle in Seattle" where violent demonstrators
    halted a meeting of the World Trade Organisation, the first
    of many disruptions at meetings of international financial
    organisations.

    IMF/World Bank discussions went ahead as scheduled and
    ministers delivered their set-piece speeches to Tuesday's
    opening session of the meeting.

    And ministers said that the loud protests had increased
    the focus on debt relief, the protesters' main demand was
    for lenders to forgive poor countries' debt.

    Participants conceded there had been little progress on
    the issue, despite promises from the two global lenders that
    they hoped to ensure that 20 countries qualified for generous
    debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries
    Initiative by the end of this year.

    The worst threat to those at the conference occurred when
    protesters stormed a hotel just across the road from the
    Congress Centre. They pelted financiers and journalists with
    cobblestones torn from Prague's historic streets until police
    pushed them back with dogs, truncheons and stun grenades.

    The demonstrators say they are continuing the
    anti-globalisation drive that disrupted the Seattle trade
    talks and prompted ugly protests in London in May.


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