Another Battle Of Seattle Brewing?
Czech police said Thursday they had turned away 194 activists from the country's borders in a bid to minimize disruption to the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Prague.
Tough border checks were imposed ahead of the meetings to keep out troublemakers with police reportedly working from a blacklist of activists provided by foreign security agencies.
Police and protest organizers expect 15,000-20,000 activists protesting against the policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Demonstrations will peak next Tuesday, the official opening day of the meetings, when activists want to block thousands of delegates inside the Prague Congress Center until they agree to disband the IMF and Bank, which they say harm the world's poor.
Anti-capitalist protests have become a feature of global economic summits since 40,000 demonstrators brought the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle to a halt last year.
Czech police deputy director Vaclav Vosecky said those turned away at the border were stopped because they failed to comply with Czech laws.
"Those people themselves declared they were coming in connection with these actions and were denied access," he said.
"Either they have invalid documents or there are things unrelated to their journey, and there is a danger they may disturb public peace," he said, adding that police turn away 8,000 people in a normal month.
The much-heralded week of protests got off to a slow start, with little evidence of the expected influx of environmentalists, trade unionists, leftists, campaigners for debt relief for poor countries and anti-capitalists.
An anti-car rally in drizzling rain in Prague's historic Old Town square Thursday attracted more reporters than activists and only a trickle of people had arrived at a vast tented camp being set up in a stadium on a hill overlooking the city.
"There is a misconception that the people coming are terrorists," said Australian campaigner Domenica Settle, 22, with protest group Car Busters. "The reality is that Tuesday there will be a lot of protesters in silly costumes."
Most demonstrators are expected to arrive Sunday or Monday, with a chartered train bringing 1,000 from northern Italy.
INPEG, the Prague-based group organizing the protests, said two members of the Italian group Ya Basta and Kay Morrison, an American from Seattle, were refused admittance at the Cinovec border crossing with Germany in the western Czech Republic on Thursday. Earlier they said five had been held up.
An international convoy of around 70 cyclists pedaling to join the protests halted at the same border point to express their solidarity with the activists barred from entry.
A few of the riders grew tired of waiting and headed home but then the caravan, mainly of Germans and Britons, continued into the Czech Republic, leaving the activists behind, said Joest Quis, one of the convoy.
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