By
The Associatd Press
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The weary captains of global capitalism said yesterday they were finishing the annual summit of the IMF and World Bank one day early, but insisted their business was done and they had not been derailed by violent street protests.
Bank officials were reading final statements early yesterday evening, saying their only business today, the original closing day, would be to hold a news conference.
"They moved more quickly than anticipated - they finished ahead of time," said David Hawley, a spokesman for the International Monetary Fund. "It has nothing to do with the protests."
The mood yesterday morning had been decidedly glum, but Hawley said the finance officials had not canceled any speeches or meetings before they got to the close.
Delegates had filed past metal barriers and thousands of police, with some worried for their safety in the wake of raging street riots the day before that trashed the city center.
Martin G. Dlamini, central bank governor from Swaziland, said he had canceled a business meeting outside the massive convention center because he was told by authorities it was not safe.
"Whether these protesters will attack us - they may," Dlamini said. "We from less developed countries understand some of the issues being raised. But this does not give us strength."
Still, like many of the 14,000 other delegates at the joint annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Dlamini hoped to use day two for tackling issues of debt relief and the war on poverty.
Trouble in the streets broke out again early yesterday when dozens of people scuffled with police outside a hotel where IMF and World Bank delegates were staying. Authorities quickly pushed the angry crowd away from the building, and police spokesman Jiri Suttner said about 100 activists were detained - raising the overall number of detentions to more than 500.
Later, about 300 or 400 protesters began marching from a town square toward the police station, but were stopped by anti-riot police. The activists retreated to a town square, where they began cheering when they heard the meetings were closing early.
Protest leaders said they were caught off guard by the end of the meeting, but were quick to try to claim credit.
"If that is true I am really excited about it - that would be a real success," said Cyanne Loyle with the Initiative Against Economic Globalization, which had organized the mass demonstrations Tuesday intended to echo those at financial meetings in Seattle and Washington.
Street protests raged a day earlier, with activists throwing Molotov cocktails and rocks at riot police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons. The fighting left more than 70 people injured, including 55 police officers.
Police said yesterday they believed 12,000 protesters had been on hand, far more than the estimate of 5,000 they used Tuesday.
Top IMF and World Bank officials insisted the demonstrators had it all wrong - that the agencies are not the enemies of the world's 2.8 billion poor but the biggest lenders to poor countries needing cash infusions.
Representatives from the 182 assembled nations tried to give their own spin on the protests, saying images of hooded anarchists hurling rocks at black-clad riot police did not taint the image of the Washington-based lending groups.
That's despite the fact that turmoil trails their meetings, with anti-globalization activists wreaking havoc at the spring gathering in Washington.
"This has been an exception rather than the rule," IMF spokesman William Murray said early yesterday. "We found the actions Tuesday in Prague deplorable."
IMF and World Bank officials have been scrambling to refashion the annual program to place greater emphasis on poverty reduction, hoping to blunt claims that two giant bureaucracies exist mainly to do the bidding of the rich countries holding a majority of voting shares.
World Bank President James Wolfensohn and IMF Managing Director Horst Koehler insisted Tuesday their institutions have heeded the calls of responsible critics for reform and more openness.
But some delegates said that's not enough, and expressed sympathy for the protesters.
"It helps bring the cause to the forefront and helps public opinion in the countries where it matters," said Mawampanga Mwana Nanga, IMF governor from the Congo, a country buried in $18 billion in foreign debt.
Nanga said it was especially important to be vocal in rich countries such as the United States, saying violence was sometimes needed to wake them from their slumber.
A delegate from tiny Papua New Guinea, watching the smoke drift across the city, said he felt the demonstrators had a point in trying to raise the awareness of poverty issues.
"We are hoping the developing world will be listened to," said Vele Iamo.
