Release: 2006-09-15
163 Organizations from Around the World in Solidarity with Those Banned &
Deported
Civil society organizations today announced a boycott of all official
events at the IMF-World Bank Meetings in Singapore. The boycott has been
endorsed by 163 organizations from all parts of the world, and includes
many organizations that have long assumed prominent roles in civil society
interactions with the international financial institutions.
This call comes in response to news that the Singapore government has
barred entry to a number of civil society representatives, including many
who had already been accredited to attend the meetings by the IMF and
World Bank. About 20 people have been deported or "refused entry" to
Singapore. The Singapore government also pressured the Riau Province
(Indonesia) government to cancel alternative events on the neighboring
island of Batam, but the Indonesian government has allowed them to
proceed.
"Our boycott is a response to egregious hypocrisy," said Ana Maria Nemenzo,
President of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, Philippines, and one of those
informed in advance that she would not be allowed into Singapore despite
receiving accreditation to the meetings. "While World Bank President Paul
Wolfowitz prepares to launch his new good governance and anti-corruption
initiative, he fails to promote those very principles for his own
institution as it meets in Singapore. Civil society has long been
unsatisfied with their marginalization by these institutions, but this
takes that problem to a new low. The events of the last week, including
the
blacklisting of 28 pre-accredited civil society representatives and an
unknown number of others from around the globe, expose the Bank's failed
commitment to transparency, accountability and basic civil rights. "
Both Wolfowitz and IMF Managing Director Rodrigo Rato have said they are
unhappy with the Singapore government's actions, but the civil society
organizations, which had planned on using the space in Singapore to
advocate for reduced IMF/World Bank involvement in economic policy-making
and in dubious infrastructure development projects, have been far from
satisfied with the response.
"These institutions are most comfortable in countries without respect for
civil liberties and human rights," said Sameer Dossani of 50 Years Is
Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice. "They came under fire the
last time they held the meetings outside Washington - in Dubai in 2003 -
and could not have been in the dark about Singapore's track record when
they chose it. Certainly the announcement in January that protesters would
be caned made clear the sort of atmosphere that would surround these
meetings."
While 163 organizations have formally endorsed the boycott, a number of
other organizations are supporting the effort in different ways. Many civil
society groups not on the list of endorsers, for example, have cancelled
meetings that had been scheduled with the IMF and World Bank.
"The World Bank and IMF cannot escape their complicity in this draconian
crackdown," said Shalmali Guttal of the pan-Asian organization Focus on the
Global South. "Not only did they knowingly choose Singapore, but
Singapore's attitudes perfectly reflect the global economic system they
impose and oversee -- one that benefits a few elites while condemning
millions to the everyday structural violence of poverty. Dissent and civil
rights threaten elite control. Indeed, World Bank and IMF support for
despotic regimes has a long, sordid history, and includes massive aid to
Marcos in the Philippines, Soeharto in Indonesia and Mobutu in Zaire (now
Democratic Republic of Congo)."
Despite the Singapore government's efforts to cancel it, the International
People's Forum Against the World Bank and IMF opens today at the Asrama
Haji Center in Batam, Indonesia and continues through the 17th.
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