Protests Escalate Against World Bank Drilling Loans; 7 Arrested

Ratcheting up their protests in advance of the world finance ministers’ meetings this weekend, demonstrators Monday briefly blocked a street near the World Bank headquarters.

Police said seven protesters were arrested, including some who chained themselves to a rental truck blocking that thoroughfare--Pennsylvania Avenue--and others who tried to hang a banner on the building.

A small group of some 20 demonstrators chanted as police cleared the road, which remained blocked for about 45 minutes by the peaceful protest. The demonstrators taken into custody offered no resistance, said Police Chief Charles Ramsey.

A banner on the truck read, “World Bank plunders the planet--no more $$$ for oil gas and mining.”

“The World Bank is funding oil mining and gas drilling and continues funding projects which increase our dependence on fossil fuels and increasingly destroys indigenous land,” said Jillian Frumkin of Ozone Action.

Brent Blackwelder, executive director of Friends of the Earth, and John Passacantando, executive director of Ozone Action, demanded the phase-out of financing for oil, gas and mining projects.

“The World Bank’s drilling and mining projects have left a trail of environmental damage, increased poverty and severe social disruption in poor countries,” Blackwelder said.

With still-fresh memories of the destruction at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, Washington’s police chief said his officers were prepared, but the response would be up to the protesters.

“The demonstrators will determine how we react to this but one thing’s for certain: We’re not going to allow property damage and fires and those kinds of things,” Ramsey said. “However, they have the right to peacefully protest, and that they will be allowed to do.”

Ramsey said he expected more of the same before and during the upcoming World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings.