SEATTLE -- Seattle police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of angry anti-trade demonstrators Tuesday as widespread protests delayed the scheduled start of a World Trade Organization meeting here.
Police fired the gas and what demonstrators described as rubber bullets at the crowd after they had failed to persuade protesters to clear the area around Seattle's Union Square near the Convention Center, where trade delegates from around the world were due to meet.
"We did this to clear a path for delegates trying to get from one venue to another," a Seattle police spokeswoman said.
She said police only used tear gas and had not fired any projectiles at the crowd. They made one arrest, for assault.
But a 55-year-old college teacher who was among the protesters insisted he had been hit by a projectile fired by police. "I heard a pop and next thing I know my leg was hurting," he said.
Other intersections around the city were still blocked by demonstrators who prevented the 135-member WTO meeting from starting on time at 10 a.m. by blocking access to the convention center.
Earlier, the protesters took over at least five city intersections and chanted, sang, and danced outside the theater where the opening ceremony of the WTO ministerial meeting was to take place.
"Whose world? Our world. Whose streets? Our streets," chanted the protesters, who say free trade benefits big business at the expense of the environment, jobs, and communities.
Police and demonstrators faced off peacefully for about 2-1/2 hours before police finally began to move in at around 10 a.m.
The Paramount Theater and the Seattle conference center where the meetings were to be held was surrounded by phalanxes of armed police wearing gas masks. Armored cars and mounted police were also deployed, but there were only a few incidents of violence.
Earlier, police accused protesters of assaulting some delegates. "Delegates are being assaulted and they're being bussed to the convention center," a policeman said.
A Colombian delegation headed by foreign trade minister Martha Lucia Ramirez was attacked by demonstrators who banged on the roof of their car. Police had to disperse them.
"We were attacked by people with masks," a Colombian diplomat said.
In Washington, President Clinton said he sympathized with protesters and said trade agreements should take into consideration labor and environmental concerns.
US trade representative Charlene Barshefsky, Secretary of Commerce William Daley, and Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman were forced to cancel a briefing on the state of trade talks due to the protests.
The trade ministers were meeting to set the agenda for a new round of negotiations aimed at cutting tariffs and other barriers in a broad range of sectors from agriculture to electronic commerce.
By reaching out to labor unions and other WTO critics, the United States and the EU hoped to blunt criticism of the WTO and mollify the protesters.
Later on Tuesday, up to 50,000 people were expected to hold a protest march through the city organized by the AFL-CIO labor confederation.
Teamsters union chief James Hoffa claimed a victory for US workers in getting labor rights added to the WTO meeting's agenda -- a move bitterly opposed by developing countries as a hidden form of protectionism by rich countries.
"We understand they have changed the agenda and that workers' rights will be on the agenda. They had no intention of doing that (previously)," he told reporters.
But this is unlikely to satisfy many of the demonstrators, who see the WTO as embodying everything they hate.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.
