WB chief hits host S'pore over blacklist

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 09/16/2006 9:00 AM

The Jakarta Post, Batam, Jakarta, Singapore

Activists walked out of a meeting Friday with the heads of the IMF and the World Bank in protest of Singapore's move to block the entry of fellow activists, even as the bank's president called the host country's actions ""authoritarian"".

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said Singapore had damaged its reputation by imposing ""authoritarian"" restrictions on the entry of activists for the World Bank/International Monetary Fund meetings.

""Enormous damage has been done and a lot of that damage is done to Singapore and self-inflicted. This could have been an opportunity for them to showcase to the world their development process,"" Wolfowitz told a meeting with activists.

""I would argue whether it has to be as authoritarian as it has been and I would certainly argue that at the stage of success they have reached, they would do much better for themselves with a more visionary approach to the process,"" he said, as quoted by Reuters.

Roberto Bisso, coordinator of the Social Watch in Uruguay, said two of his colleagues from Kenya and Brazil were barred from entering Singapore and deported, and asked why the World Bank and the IMF did nothing about it.

Wolfowitz responded: ""I have raised the issue repeatedly, with the president and also the prime minister of Singapore, and I got reassuring words that this problem might be resolved.""

Bisso said failure to take adequate action would affect the ""credibility"" of the two institutions, and asked if the meetings would be suspended. Wolfowitz said this was not possible, at which point Bisso and several other activists walked out.

Outside the venue at Suntec City Hall, two dozen protesters lined up in a designated area for rallies, wearing gags reading ""No Voice"".

Singapore objected to at least 27 accredited activists and barred them from entering the country, saying they posed a threat to security and public order.

One of the activists barred entry to Singapore, Binny Buchori, denied that she had been removed from the blacklist, as reported by The Jakarta Post on Friday.

""I'm still on the blacklist, but am identified as a representative of INFID which I'm no longer attached to,"" she said in Jakarta. INFID is the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development.

In response to appeals to lift the ban, Singapore said it would allow 22 of the blacklisted activists to enter the country, but the remaining five would be ""subject to interview and may not be allowed in"".

On Indonesia's Batam island in Riau Islands province, a 40-minute ferry ride south of Singapore, a few hundred activists held a protest meeting Friday, with civil society organizations announcing they would boycott all official events at the WB/IMF annual meetings.

Dozens of police officers, including antiterror officers, were on the scene to guard the indoor protest. The boycott was endorsed by 163 organizations from across the globe, including prominent organizations that had been accredited by the IMF.

The boycott was staged ""in solidarity"" with those deported or barred entry ""because the Singaporean government, in its paranoia, somehow deems them as a threat"", said Sameer Dosani, executive director of 50 Years is Enough, which groups more than 200 U.S. non-governmental organizations aiming for the transformation of the IMF/World Bank.

Those attending the protest said they believed both the IMF and the World Bank were allowing Singapore to blacklist activists.

""The IMF and World Bank cannot escape responsibility for the recent incidents,"" Donatus Markus of INFID said.

Binny said the IMF and the bank were public institutions, ""paid by taxpayers, so they must be accountable"".

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