DATE=04-20-02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=WORLD BANK PROTEST(L-only)

NUMBER=2-288943

BYLINE=KENNETH SCHWARTZ

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

INTERNET=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: While G-7 finance ministers are meeting Saturday in Washington D-C, at least one-thousand anti-World Bank and I-M-F protesters are in a park across from the building hoping to get their word across. V-O-A's Ken Schwartz was there.

TEXT:

// NATURAL SOUND UP FULL //

The warm weather put the crowd in a festive mood, but their anger was palpable as they gathered to express their opinion on the policy of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

// NATURAL SOUND UP FULL //

A nine-meter tall Earth balloon with a "for sale" sign pasted on it hovered above the crowd which ranged from toddlers to seniors in wheelchairs. Some marchers wore President George Bush masks. Others dressed as skeletons. Nearly all the demonstrators share the belief that the World Bank and I-M-F keep developing countries deep in debt.

// PROTESTER ACT #1//

They're exploiting all the indigenous populations, they're raping the earth, they're funding projects that are totally against the environment and it's the indigenous people and the most vulnerable people and most vulnerable species are the ones that are getting the short end of the stick.

// END ACT //

// PROTESTER ACT #2//

We've got a five-year-old here and we want a world that isn't dominated by institutions that put profits over people. We want a world where kids everywhere can go to school, get clean water, get health care without the World Bank pushing up prices.

// END ACT //

A demonstrator from India's Tamil Nadu state says 100-thousand people are losing their homes because of a World Bank funded dam project on the Narmada River.

// PROTESTER ACT //

They're all going to lose their homes, their ancestral lands and the right to fish and hunt on lands where they lived for thousands of years. And there is no land availabe to compensate them, even though the World Bank guidelines say you have to have land-for-land compensation.

// END ACT //

Many marchers demanded the World Bank cancel the debt owed by many developing nations.

Njoki Njehu is from Kenya. She says her country is struggling to get out from under a huge foreign debt.

// NJEHU ACT //

Policies that affect the Kenyan people are made here in Washington D-C, behind closed doors without the knowledge and consent of the Kenyan people. Yes, the finance minister might know, the central bank may know but the Kenyan people do not know.

// END ACT //

On the sidelines of the march, one man held a sign urging people to back the U-S led war on terrorism

// PROTESTER ACT //

It just seems like this is a protest just to protest without any real purpose behind it. I'm a liberal and I support the war against terrorism, but I do not think this is the way to get help for the poor.

// NATURAL SOUND UP FULL //

Later, a pro-Palestinian demonstrators joined the World Bank protesters in a march to Capitol Hill. Police report no arrests and no injuries as the demonstrators converged.(Signed)

NEB/PT