Agence France Presse / Jan Tucek
PRAGUE, Sept 18 (AFP) - Czech President Vaclav Havel has adopted a velvet glove approach to defuse any new, explosive anti-globalization protests when IMF and World Bank officials gather here for their annual meeting next week.
But the country's police force is braced to take on all-comers in the biggest show of force in the Czech capital since the "Prague Spring" was crushed by the old communist regime in 1969.
Faced with the arrival of thousands of highly motivated anti-globalization protesters for the meeting, the Czech Republic has adopted a twin-pronged strategy to try to head off the problems seen at similar meetings in Seattle and Washington.
Havel on Saturday called for a civilised, informal dialogue between those for and against globalization.
He also welcomed to the Czech capital "all those people who arrive with the willingness to contribute to solving world problems."
But Interior Minister Stanislav Gross favours a much more muscular approach and is clearly ready to use the 11,000 police officers, soldiers and secret service agents at his disposal if he considers it necessary.
"Any attempt to disrupt the movements of delegates will not be tolerated," he told a Czech newspaper on Saturday.
The two international financial organisations are holdings meetings between September 21 and 29 in the Czech capital, the first such meeting in a former communist city.
Havel is keen to maintain his image of a former dissident and defender of human rights by offsetting the no-nonsense approach of the interior ministry.
During the IMF and World Bank meetings, "Prague will become a mirror of our world and its ambiguous and paradoxical civilization," he said, criticizing the "absurd publicity" that had been given to the tough police measures.
Havel will chair a debate of 300 IMF and World Bank officials, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), "alternative" economists and other opponents of globalization at Prague castle on September 23.
Among the guests will be the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, the Director General of the IMF, Horst Koehler and the president of the World bank, James Wolfensohn.
The forum is designed to create "a spirit of dialogue and mutual understanding" so as to "positively influence the atmosphere" in the Czech capital, according to Havel.
The question will be whether Havel's calming influence will filter through to thousands of militants pouring into Prague for the IMF and World Bank meeting.
The city's police forces are on red alert to counter any potential trouble.
Riot police units equipped with tear-gas launchers, police sharpshooters, armoured vehicles on loan from the army, water cannon and helicopters will all be standing by.
Gross said the police are even ready to break up peaceful demonstrations if they are taking place in areas decreed off-limits.
The minister hopes, however, to "minimize the number of cases where truncheons are used and where force is applied" by police officers.
A "specially protected zone" where all forms of protest are banned will be set up in the area around the congress hall, the financial chiefs' principal meeting point.
There are also extensive security operations planned for the areas around Prague's five big hotels where IMF and World Bank officials and VIP guets will be staying.
Strict border controls have been in place since last week to search for "arms, explosives and drugs" among anti-globalization protesters on their way to Prague.
"Black lists" of several hundred militants have been drawn up with the help of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and European police forces.
Even having the "wrong face" appears to have become a good enough reason to turn an individual back at the border, the protest group Initiative Against Economic Globalization - Prague 2000 (INPEG), complained.:
