IMF chief calls for end of poverty after pie in the face

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Michel Camdessus, has called for fresh efforts to eliminate poverty.

Mr Camdessus told a conference of developing nations in the Thai capital, Bangkok, that the growing gap between rich and poor was morally outrageous.

Mr Camdessus said poverty was the greatest concern of our time, adding the widening gaps between the most affluent and most impoverished nations were morally outrageous, economically wasteful and potentially socially explosive.

But there have been wide-ranging critics of the IMF's policies in the rescue of the Asian economies in the past two years.


Pie

Earlier, Mr Camdessus became the latest victim of a notorious pie-throwing protest group, after a lone demonstrator landed a pastry on his face at the talks.

He joins Microsoft boss Bill Gates, former World Trade Organisation (WTO) leader Renato Ruggiero and film director Jean-Luc Godard as embarrassed victims of Patissiers sans Frontieres (Bakers without Borders - PSF).

Mr Camdessus, who was about to deliver his last major address as IMF managing director before retiring on Monday, was targeted by the self-styled "pastry commandos" as he arrived at the venue hosting the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

As he approached the lectern, the protester walked up casually to within arm's length of the IMF chief and unleashed the pie.

Security personnel quickly moved to surround Mr Camdessus, who appeared shocked by the attack.

The protestor, US national Robert Naiman, was later released by police after the UN declined to press charges.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan later said the attack was "a bit rude" adding Mr Camdessus and the IMF had "done a lot for the international system".

PSF says the pie-throwing is designed to poke fun at prominent figures and those who are judged to take the public creamings with good humour are never bothered again.



Security

UNCTAD's Thai hosts have erected a massive security curtain around the meeting, anxious to prevent a repeat of the violence at WTO talks in Seattle last year and at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month.

However, 1,000 activists marched on the conference Saturday, calling for radical changes to the global financial system, which they say keeps much of the world locked in poverty.

UNCTAD, which has earned a reputation as an advocate of developing nations, is attended by many delegates hostile to the role of world financial bodies.

© 2000 Australian Broadcasting Corporation