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The Bush administration agrees with top officials of the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank that the two
institutions' annual meetings planned for downtown Washington later
this month should not take place as scheduled, a U.S. government
source said yesterday. A formal decision has not been made.

Because the United States is the host of the meetings, the
administration is viewed as having the final say on the matter. IMF
and World Bank officials, who strongly prefer putting off the
meetings because of the strain they would impose on police in the
aftermath of this week's terrorist attacks, had been awaiting the
return to Washington of Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill. O'Neill,
who returned from a trip to Asia on Wednesday, did not comment
yesterday on the meetings.

"We are still pressing Treasury extremely vigorously to postpone,"
said a World Bank source who asked not to be named. "The bank and the
fund want to come out with this decision as soon as possible."

Police have said the gathering of the world's finance ministers and
central bankers -- scheduled for Sept. 29 and 30 -- could draw up to
100,000 protesters to the capital. Law enforcement authorities have
planned unprecedented security precautions, including recruiting
out-of-town police officers and possibly installing a two-mile fence
around parts of downtown. Activists from a variety of causes -- from
anti-capitalist to pro-environment -- planned to use the meetings as
a backdrop to voice grievances over corporate control of the world's
economic system and the stifling debt of the world's poor countries.

The meetings were thrown into doubt after the attacks on the World
Trade Center and Pentagon, with the D.C. police chief, city officials
and sources at the two economic bodies saying that canceling or
postponing the sessions is inevitable. It remains unclear whether the
meetings would be held a few weeks later, or possibly under other
auspices, such as a computerized hookup.

The World Bank source said that no legal obstacles prevent the two
institutions from postponing or canceling the sessions, adding that
the formal business to be conducted -- such as electing the chairman
and deputy chairman of the Board of Governors -- does not have to be
completed until the next fiscal year, which ends in June 2002.

The developments pose new problems for the anti-globalization
movement, the informal worldwide network of activists and radical
progressives who gained momentum in the United States after street
protests in Seattle in 1999 that shut down a summit of the World
Trade Organization.

Demonstrations that have been months in the making now might be
scrapped, as many activists worry that protesting the IMF and World
Bank as the nation reels from the worst terrorist attack in its
history would yield more opponents than converts. Some organizers,
however, said they still plan to protest in Washington whether the
meetings are held or not, refocusing their message with a more
pro-peace, antiwar tone.

Added one organizer: "The pain and suffering those institutions
caused have not changed. The organizing has already taken place for
months . . . so why stop the organizing just because the meetings are
called off?"

Protesters with the Mobilization for Global Justice, one of the main
<D.C.-based> coalitions planning demonstrations, said the group has
not come to a decision about what to do if the meetings are not held.
Other groups echoed those sentiments. A meeting for activists to
voice their thoughts on the attacks and the possible impact on
protests was held last night at a Mount Pleasant church.

On the Mobilization for Global Justice's Web site,
<www.globalizethis.org>, visitors posted a range of thoughts and
emotions, with some arguing that the anti-globalization protest
should be turned into a peace march and others advocating for no
demonstrations. One D.C. resident wrote to protesters: "Come back in
six months, a year, but not now. Leave us be for a while."

(C) 2001 The Washington Post Company
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