In Singapore, a group of activists walked out of a meeting with IMF and World Bank officials earlier today in protest of the barring of twenty-eight colleagues. Singapore has barred the activists during the annual International Monetary Fund–World Bank meetings which began on Wednesday. Also today, a handful of activists staged a protest in the official demonstration zone. They were forced to scan bar-coded identification cards before entering the area. They were outnumbered by surrounding media and security personnel. This one of the protesters.

• Unidentified Protester: “The poor people haven’t got their voice in this meeting. That is why we insist that we need to have a bigger voice.”

Meanwhile, World Bank head Paul Wolfowitz also criticized the barring of the activists.

• World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz: “In meetings with the President and Prime Minister, I raised the issue of members of civil society who have been accredited and excluded from our meetings and last night the Prime Minister said that based on the Bank and Fund vouching for these people that they would look at each case individually and open the door to let them in. I hope that will happen expeditiously and completely and we are waiting for further developments.”