Agence France Presse
PRAGUE, Sept 20 (AFP) - Anti-globalization protestors plan next week to blockade a conference centre where the IMF/World Bank summit is taking place, to prevent delegates leaving, protest organisers said Wednesday.
The action, which would be in defiance of a formal ban by Czech authorities, is planned for next Tuesday, September 26, when the largest demonstration against the Prague meeting is scheduled.
About 20,000 anti-globalisation protesters are expected to descend on Prague during the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, set to start on Thursday and last until September 29.
Next Tuesday's protest will begin at 11:00 am on the Czech capital's Peace Square. From there the protestors hope to walk the 1.5 km (1 mile) to the centre where the meetings are being held, and to peacefully encircle it.
Czech authorities have sealed off an area around the centre, imposing a strict ban on demonstrations.
At the IMF/World Bank's spring meetings in Washington in April, anti-globalization protestors notably blockaded entrances, preventing several finance ministers from attending meetings.
"We are asking them to stop their work," said Chelsea Mozen, a spokeswoman for the main protest organizer, INPEG. "We want to let them in first, so they can meet and decide about it," she added.
INPEG meanwhile said it does not plan to blockade a meeting of ministers from the G7 group of industrialized countries this Saturday. But it warned that "certain autonomous groups" could attempt to do so.
INPEG sent an open letter to Czech President Vaclav Havel on Wednesday demanding the lifting of a ban on demonstrations, which accompanies the biggest security operation since the suppression of the Prague Spring in 1969.
Havel was a key force in the anti-communist movement then, and led the Velvet Revolution which liberated Prague two decades later.
"In November 1989 we won some fundamental democratic rights, including the right to free assembly and free expression of political opinions... We .. demand that our fundamental civil rights and freedoms are respected," it said.:
