[asia-apec 1397] IMF CHIEF CALLS FOR END OF POVERTY AFTER PIE IN THE FACE

[Anuradha Mittal]

PLESAE FIND ATTACHED ARTICLES ON UNCTAD'S MEETING IN THAILAND AND 
PROTESTS IT GENERATED:


IMF CHIEF CALLS FOR END OF POVERTY AFTER PIE IN THE FACE 


The managing director of theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF),
Michel Camdessus, has called for fresh efforts to eliminate poverty.

Mr Camdessus told a conference of developing nations in the Thai
capital, Bangkok, that the growing gap between rich and poor was
morally outrageous.

Mr Camdessus said poverty was the greatest concern of our time,
adding the widening gaps between the most affluent and most
impoverished nations were morally outrageous, economically 
wasteful and potentially socially explosive. But there have been 
wide-ranging critics of the IMF's policies in the rescue of the Asian 
economies in the past two years. 

Pie

Earlier, Mr Camdessus became the latest victim of a notorious
pie-throwing protest group, after a lone demonstrator landed a 
pastry on his face at the talks.

He joins Microsoft boss Bill Gates, former World Trade 
Organisation (WTO) leader Renato Ruggiero and film director 
Jean-Luc Godard as embarrassed victims of Patissiers sans 
Frontieres (Bakers without Borders - PSF). 

Mr Camdessus, who was about to deliver his last major address 
as IMF managing director before retiring on Monday, was targeted 
by the self-styled "pastry commandos" as he arrived at the venue 
hosting the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). 


As he approached the lectern, the protester walked up casually 
to within arm's length of the IMF chief and unleashed the pie. Security 
personnel quickly moved to surround Mr Camdessus, who
appeared shocked by the attack. The protestor, US national Robert 
Naiman, was later released by police after the UN declined to press 
charges. 

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan later said the attack was "a bit 
rude" adding Mr Camdessus and the IMF had "done a lot for the
international system". 

PSF says the pie-throwing is designed to poke fun at prominent
figures and those who are judged to take the public creamings 
with good humour are never bothered again. 

Security

UNCTAD's Thai hosts have erected a massive security curtain around
the meeting, anxious to prevent a repeat of the violence at WTO 
talks in Seattle last year and at the World Economic Forum in 
Davos last month. 

However, 1,000 activists marched on the conference Saturday, 
calling for radical changes to the global financial system, 
which they say keeps much of the world locked in poverty. 

UNCTAD, which has earned a reputation as an advocate of
developing nations, is attended by many delegates hostile to the 
role of world financial bodies.
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OUTGOING IMF CHIEF HIT WITH PIE

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- The outgoing chief of the International 
Monetary Fund got a rude retirement present Sunday when an American 
anti-free trade activist penetrated security at a trade conference and 
hit him with a pie in the face.

Moments before Michel Camdessus was to deliver his last speech as IMF 
chairman, the activist hurled a fruit-and-cream pie inside the meeting 
hall where some 190 nations are holding the U.N. Conference on Trade and 
Development.

The action left Camdessus -- seen by many activists as Public Enemy No. 
1 for dictating financial policies to poor countries -- and Thailand's 
tough-talking security officials with pie on their faces.
Camdessus has been a prime target of both Thai and foreign anti-free 
trade activists gathered in Bangkok to demonstrate at the conference, 
seeking to repeat protests that derailed the World Trade Organization 
summit in Seattle last year.

The pie-thrower, who identified himself as Robert Reuel Naiman, 34, of 
Washington, D.C., said he performed the stunt to give the IMF chief ``a 
friendly reminder of what we think of his policies and to give a warning 
to his successor we expect different policies.'' Camdessus was chatting 
to delegates in the main conference hall before making a keynote speech 
when Naiman snuck up beside him and threw a pie with a shout of ``Happy 
Birthday!''``It was a small cake, very tasty,'' Naiman told the ITV 
television network before he was taken away by security.

Naiman had managed to sneak his projectile through a tight security 
cordon around the Queen Sirikit Convention Center, the site of the 
conference. Thai police have kept demonstrators away from the immediate 
area. Naiman was being questioned by U.N. security officials inside the 
center. National Police Chief Gen. Pracha Promnok said it would be up to 
the United Nations if they wished to file criminal charges and prosecute 
him.

``I'm disappointed,'' said Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan. ``It's 
absolutely impossible to prevent such an incident. We have left no stone 
unturned in our planning and preparation. We have been able to prevent 
bigger problems.'' The Brussels-based group said it had staged similar 
attacks at international conferences and called the attack a ``slight 
and sweet embarrassment'' compared to the tremendous suffering inflicted 
on poor countries by the IMF. Naiman, who described himself only as a 
``private citizen,'' said that he had been at the WTO meeting in 
Seattle, which ended in acrimony when anti-free trade activists clashed 
violently with police.

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CAMDESSUS DEFENDS IMF IN SPEECH 

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Giving his last speech as chief of the 
International Monetary Fund, Michel Camdessus used the occasion Sunday 
to counter claims that his organization has ignored the concerns of 
ordinary people.

Camdessus said foreign investment in the Third World has enormous 
potential to close the income gap, while information technology has 
given poor nations access to knowledge that was once the preserve of the 
rich. ``Globalization can now be seen in a positive light ... as the 
best means of improving the human condition throughout the world,'' he 
said.

Camdessus, 66, retiring after heading the IMF since 1987, spoke at the 
U.N. Conference on Trade and Development shortly after an American 
anti-free trade activist threw a pie in his face in protest against the 
IMF. He spoke without mentioning the attack but was passionate in his 
defense of the fund's goal of stabilizing the global financial system as 
a prerequisite for reducing inequality in wealth.
``Macroeconomic stability is clearly necessary for growth and hence 
poverty alleviation,'' Camdessus told delegates from some 190 countries 
gathered for the eight-day meeting. UNCTAD aims to use trade to promote 
development in poor countries.

Camdessus postponed a news conference that had been scheduled after his 
speech, which itself was delayed for half an hour after the pie-throwing 
incident. 

Critics of the IMF's bailout packages of Asian countries during the 
recent regional economic crisis see the Washington-based fund as a 
symbol of how globalization has benefitted rich countries at the expense 
of the poor. In Thailand, which will leave its IMF-brokered $17.2 
billion economic bailout package in June, many people claim the fund's 
insistence on high interest rates to restore financial stability 
deepened recession, leading to heavy job losses.

____________________________________________________

IMF CHIEF CAMDESSUS HIT WITH PIE AT UN TRADE MEETING

BANGKOK, Feb 13 (AFP) - A protester at a major UN trade talks here threw 
a fruit pie at International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director 
Michel Camdessus Sunday as he entered the conference venue.
The mess landed on Camdessus's face and he retreated to a corner of the 
room to clean himself up, while the lone demonstrator left the scene.

The protester, who identified himself as US national Robert Naiman, was 
apprehended within the building shortly afterwards by security 
personnel, who had initially moved to surround Camdessus.

The IMF chief quickly recovered and resumed his conversation with 
officials at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 
(UNCTAD), where he is to deliver a keynote address later Saturday.
Naiman told AFP he was acting as a private citizen and not on behalf of 
any group, but the protest group "Patissiers sans Frontieres" (Bakers 
without Borders) has issued a statement on the prank.
Naiman also said he had demonstrated at the World Trade Organisation 
talks in Seattle, which were marred by violent demonstrations.
"We wanted to tell Mr. Camdessus that we don't appreciate his 
leadership, because of the destruction IMF policies have caused," he 
said. "Mr. Camdessus is a servant of rich countries who enact economic 
policies which hurt the poor. We want to give a warning to his successor 
that we expect different policies," he said before he was hauled off by 
police.

Camdessus is to step down from his post Monday and his address here will 
be his last major speech before retiring. UNCTAD's Thai hosts have 
erected a massive security curtain around the meeting, anxious to 
prevent a repeat of the violence at Seattle and at the World Economic 
Forum in Davos last month. However, a thousand activists marched on the 
conference Saturday calling for radical changes to the global financial 
system, which they say keeps much of the world locked in poverty.

UNCTAD, which has earned a reputation as an advocate of developing 
nations, is attended by many delegates hostile to the role of world 
financial bodies.

_____________________________________________________
Agence France Presse - February 12 7:24 PM SGT

PROTESTORS CONFRONT TRADE CONFERENCE, SLAM GLOABLAIZATION

BANGKOK, Feb 12 (AFP) -

A thousand activists marched on a major UN trade conference on Saturday 
calling for radical changes to the global financial system which they 
say keeps much of the world locked in poverty.

Demonstrators were not deterred by a massive Thai security curtain 
around the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) 
designed to prevent a repeat of violence which marred trade talks in 
Seattle and Davos.

As world leaders and delegates met inside a conference centre, singing 
and yelling protestors carrying banners lambasting the World Bank, World 
Trade Organization and IMF found their route to the venue blocked by 
riot police.

"WTO/IMF/ADB/WB - Go to Hell" and "Struggle Against the New Imperialism" 
read banners hung between balloon-decked trucks carrying the protesters.

Flanked by cordons of police, several hundred Thai and foreign 
protestors were later allowed to approach the conference centre hosting 
UNCTAD and stand across the road from the venue.

Once in front of the venue, protestors slammed globalization and 
presented their demands to UNCTAD officials, who came out to police 
barriers to meet demonstrators.

"We hope organizations realize globalisation is leading the world to
chaos, inequality and madness," said protestor Demoussa Dembele, leader 
of a non-governmental organisation coordinating committee in Senegal.

"UNCTAD is a good opportunity to rethink policies that more equally
redistribute the benefits of globalisation and alter the international
financial system," he said.

Among their demands demonstrators called on UNCTAD delegates to reform 
the world's financial system to benefit developing countries and help 
protect natural resources.

"We share your feelings, we have the same aspirations for developing
countries to have a better life, and we want this conference to give you 
and your families hope," said Awni Behnam, secretary of the UN trade and 
development board, who received the protestors' demands.

"Your cause is our cause," he said.

Earlier, protestors gathered in a Bangkok park to coordinate their 
demands and plan the march, which progressed through slum districts near 
the conference centre.

"The Thai government always says it's democratic, but they don't allow 
us a real protest, showing that they're just like a dictatorship," said 
Virasak Sunthorncamorn, director of Labour Academy, one of the 
protesting groups.

Although there were brief outbreaks of pushing and shoving between
demonstrators and the police, the protest was mostly peaceful. A number 
of protestors sang upbeat songs and laughed and joked with police.

Several times protestors sat down in front of police.

Most of the demonstrators came from Thai non-governmental organisations 
(NGOs), but they were joined by foreign protestors from over 40 
countries and 200 textile workers who accuse the government of failing 
to save their struggling industry.

In a statement, Bangkok-based NGO Assembly of the Poor lambasted UNCTAD 
as an organization dominated by a few states.

Because UNCTAD is controlled by powerful countries and transnational
corporations, it will not promote free trade and genuine development, 
and will exploit developing countries, the statement said.

The group also accused the Thai government of selling control over its
economy to foreigners.

"The government does not protect the people's sovereignty but acts as a 
slave of imperialism," said the statement.

"This organization of poor people is very important, since their
mobilization shows that even the most disadvantaged people can have a 
say in determining trade policies," said Christopher Aguiton of a French 
NGO.

Thai police were already on red alert after 10 Myanmar rebels last month 
besieged a hospital in western Thailand and took hundreds of hostages in 
a 24 hour stand-off. The 10 hostage-takers were killed by security 
forces.

_____________________________________________________
Agence France Presse - February 12 7:27 PM SGT

UN CHIEF SLAMS POWERFUL NATIONS AT GLOBA: TRADE TALKS 

BANGKOK, Feb 12 (AFP) -

UN chief Kofi Annan attacked the world's most powerful nations at the
opening of major trade talks Saturday, blaming them for scuppering last 
year's WTO talks and stunting the development of poor countries.

Annan said the "leading economic powers" were solely responsible for the 
spectacular failure of the World Trade Organisation summit in Seattle, 
which was supposed to launch a new round of trade negotiations.

He described as a "popular myth" the belief that the talks were derailed 
by the violent protests which paralysed the summit's program.

"The round was not launched because governments -- particularly those of 
the world's leading economic powers -- could not agree on their
priorities," he told the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD).

Developing nations played a more "active and united role" in the Seattle 
talks than ever before, he said, while the industrial powers bickered 
among themselves and showed they did not have the will to implement 
reforms.

UNCTAD, which has earned a reputation as an advocate of poor nations, 
aims to bring developing nations into the global economic fold and calm 
fierce anti-trade sentiment.

But even before Annan opened the talks, 1,000 anti-globalisation
protestors marched on the conference venue in central Bangkok, demanding 
immediate action to share the spoils of globalisation more fairly.

"WTO/IMF/ADB/WB - Go to Hell" read a banner stretched between trucks,
laden with hundreds of balloons, that carried the protesters through the 
Thai capital before a cordon of riot police blocked their advance.

The secretary-general said the developing world remained excluded from 
the move towards globalisation, partly because of barriers put in place 
by industrialised countries.

And he called for a "Global New Deal" where the benefits of 
globalisation would be spread among all pro-investment countries.

"Can we not attempt on a global level what any successful industrialised 
country does to help its most disadvantaged or underdeveloped regions 
catch up," he asked.

There are already signs that the world's most powerful nations and trade 
bodies are responding to criticism that developing nations have been 
dealt a raw deal in the liberalisation process.

WTO chief Mike Moore told AFP Saturday that he was working on a package 
of proposals to offer poorer economies better access to lucrative 
markets.

"We have agreed to try and negotiate free market access for least
developed countries," he said, adding that WTO ambassadors had also 
agreed to discuss implementation issues.

Moore said the acrimony of last year had now eased, and that WTO talks
since then had made "considerable progress."

"I think confidence is back, we have been working on (the issues) -- how 
successful we will be only time will tell."

"We are talking, we are not there yet but we are working on it," he 
said.

Conference organisers hope the inclusion within the UNCTAD program of
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) -- which have spearheaded 
opposition to free trade -- will minimise the risk of violent 
disruption.

At a round-table discussion that kicked off the talks Saturday, leading 
economists said widening inequality among the world's rich and poor must 
be addressed in the interests of maximising global development.

They said that in a system where the rich make the rules, the incidence 
of poverty was rising and rates of development were becoming even more 
uneven.

Leaders of nine Southeast Asian nations will be present at the week-long 
conference, as well as Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and the 
heads of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

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