SINGAPORE: Tight security in Singapore as it hosts IMF/World Bank meetings

Thousands of delegates have started gathering in Singapore for the annual International Monetary Fund - World Bank meetings starting Wednesday (September 13) but activists protesting against poverty and globalisation are largely absent this year due to tight security measures. Police have barred access to a network of roads around the meeting venue at the Suntec City convention centre and have placed steel fences topped with razor wire to secure the area. Police and Gurkha forces armed with automatic weapons patrolling the area are outnumbering delegates and ordinary folk at the meeting venue. Delegates and others accredited to attend the series of IMF-World Bank meetings have to go through a series of strict security checks before entering the meeting venue filled with more security personnel and smiling Singaporean officials, at Singapore's largest convention to date. The annual IMF-World Bank meetings are held outside Washington every three years to bring focus on the world economy. The meeting in Singapore, dubbed Singapore 2006, is the largest to date with nearly 24,000 people registered for the event. Officials say nearly 16,000 people have picked up their accreditation passes. IMF spokesman William Murray rattled off a series of statistics on Wednesday (September 13) ahead of the meetings. Among those expected to attend the meetings are British Chancellor of Exchequer Gordon Brown and G7 finance ministers. "You know, the 2006 annual meetings in Singapore from the IMF perspective is really focused really around three key points, deepening and enhancing the voices of representation of emerging economies in the world. We have come out with details of a quota reform plan that has to be acted upon. The other aspect is deepening and improving upon what we call economic surveillance, the role of the IMF, what it does, it's one of its core mandates. That is how we relate bilaterally, regionally and multilaterally and how we keep an eye on the world economy. The third key aspect of this meeting is on the role of the IMF in low income countries. Low income countries obviously are on everybody's mind in the context of millennium development goals and we are going to be reviewing where we stand in terms of pushing forward on the millennium development goals," IMF spokesman Murray told Reuters Television. But the most jam-packed event at this year's International Monetary Fund-World Bank meeting in Singapore could end up being an indoor protest. Singapore has banned 28 activists from entering the country and have only accredited 487 civil rights activists. They will have to stand very, very close together to use a protest area cordoned off for them in a country where protests are almost non-existent. The much talked-about protest area -- Singapore's only concession to its ban on demonstrations in the city -- measures about 8 by 8 metres (26 by 26 feet). Red and blue tape neatly section off the area at the back entrance of the cavernous convention centre where the 24,000 delegates will congregate. At the official start of the meeting on Wednesday (September 13), the protest area was conspicuously empty, surrounded by officials and police. Activists, upset at the restrictions, are hoping to make their point by using the square on Saturday (September 16) to protest against not being allowed to protest, and will demonstrate quietly with gags over their mouths. Police routinely deny applications for street demonstrations in Singapore. Public speeches are only allowed in designated places during election campaigning or, after registration, at an outdoor "speakers' corner" which was fashioned after the one in London's Hyde Park and situated next to a police post. Orators at speakers' corner in Singapore rarely attract a crowd. Nonetheless, opposition politician Chee Soon Juan plans to use the venue on Saturday. Police have rejected Chee's request for a permit to stage a protest march, which is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. and to make its way to Suntec City, according to the Web site of Chee's Singapore Democratic Party. Despite that, Singapore is confident of putting on a good show for the meetings, mobilising thousands of people and sparing no expense for the meetings. "Well, Singapore 2006 is one of the larger events we've had in Singapore. We expect 16,000 delegates. For Singapore, it is an opportunity to showcase ourselves as a global city and also as a springboard to Asia, especially China, India and Asean," said Brigadier General Ravinder Singh, co-chairperson of the Singapore 2006 organising committee. The authorities have also decorated the city with buntings and posters apart from signages to notify traffic disruptions. Some Singaporeans are bemused by the enthusiasm shown by their government. "It brings in money to us but to put in a lot of effort just to make sure these people are comfortable is a bit taxing on people who work," 15-year-old Joyene Nazatul told Reuters Television. He spoke as he looked at a series of posters on world poverty on display in a Singapore sidewalk.

ITN Source | September 13, 2006

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