Posted on: Saturday, April 21, 2001

Governor confident ADB meeting will be peaceful

By Robbie Dingeman and Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writers

Gov. Ben Cayetano yesterday predicted that the Asian Development Bank conference next month here will not spark the kind of police confrontations with protesters that erupted in Seattle two years ago or, in more recent days, in Quebec City.

But law enforcement officials are monitoring the protests in Quebec as they prepare for the meeting May 7-11 at the Hawai'i Convention Center that local groups estimate will attract as many as 5,000 protesters.

"I'm really confident that the demonstrations that we will see here will be peaceful, civil, unlike the demonstrations that we've seen in Seattle (at the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting) or now in Quebec (at the Summit of the Americas meeting )," the governor said.

"That's why we're working very hard to make sure, first of all, that the right of free speech is not impinged in any way," Cayetano said.

He said the international meeting here of economic and government leaders is an important event for the state.

"If we do a good job, I think you will see that Hawai'i will become really a center for these kinds of meetings, whether they be political, economic or cultural," he said.

Cayetano said the state has been working with groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, to ensure an opportunity for those who question the bank's policies to be heard.

He said he believes that security preparations have been appropriate but that the news media have spent too much time dwelling on police preparation and not enough on the issues the ADB will confront.

"The ADB itself wants to address issues which are of concern to these people," he said.

Protesters have complained that the bank's economic policies exploit the poor and harm the environment.

"The only way that the people in Third World countries are going to move forward is through some economic development of some kind," Cayetano said.

"Granted, there've been mistakes made with the monies that the ADB has loaned to different people and to different organizations, but from what I've seen, they continually are working to make it better."

Honolulu Assistant Police Chief Boisse Correa, commander of security planning and operations for the ADB meeting, said there are no plans to send observers to Quebec City.

"We're in touch with people in Quebec and are monitoring the situation," said Correa.

He reiterated that Hawai'i has invested money, time and manpower to developing a strategy to keep peace and respect the constitutional rights of protesters.

"Our training has been very, very successful," he said. "I'm confident that we will be able to handle any situation that is less than peaceful."