Protesting against the WTO Ministerial into its final hours, environmentalists Friday hung banners inside the Seattle convention center warning of a proposal that would accelerate worldwide deforestation and demanding a reversal of the trade organization's ruling against laws protecting sea turtles. Meanwhile, many of the protesters arrested since the brutal police crackdown Wednesday began to be released, although hundreds faced yet another night in jail.

Just before noon, seven activists unfurled a large banner that said: "Defend Forests. Clearcut the WTO," referring to a U.S. initiative to slash border taxes on timber and paper products.

Environmentalists oppose the move because it would boost the rate of deforestation overseas and could eventually hobble domestic forest-protection laws.

"President Clinton is a clear and present danger to the world's forests," shouted Rainforest Action Network President Randy Hayes. "We have got to stop this madness." Added Juliette Beck of Global Exchange: "Trade agreements should achieve the highest environmental standards, not sink to the lowest common denominator."

The activists, who gained access to the convention center with legitimate media credentials, were warned and barred from the building, but were not arrested.

A second wave of demonstrations hit the convention center several hours later.

Protesters representing the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, shouting "Sea turtles are not trade barriers!" unfurled a banner on the sixth floor so delegates hanging out in the fourth-floor smoking area could see it high in the atrium. It showed a sea turtle snared in a fishing net and read: "Clinton Say No to the WTO," the banner read. The activist holding the banner was, like the earlier group, ejected from the convention center but not arrested.

"The WTO is an attack on democracy and the sovereignty of nations," said Todd Steiner, Director of Sea Turtle Restoration Project. "It consists of secret meetings, conflicts of interest, and no public participation. In this age of democracy, the WTO is an international embarrassment."

Steiner added, " The American public is finally understanding the threat these so-called free trade agreements have to our democratic process when un-elected trade bureaucrats from outside the U.S. get to determine which of our laws are legitimate."

At the King County Jail, a steady stream of protesters arrested since Tuesday were processed and released on bail, which for most of them was less than $250, although county prosecutors the court to set bonds as high as $1,000. The process, however, proceeded at a snail's pace, and perhaps 200 protesters might not be released until Saturday. Another 40 to 50 protesters were refusing to cooperate by not giving their names, and appeared determined to remain in jail until the city issued an official apology for the police's actions and dropped all charges against all non-violent protesters.

One of the detainees released on $25 bond was Jeremy Pastor of the Rainforest Action Network, who said he had been walking legally on Fifth Avenue Wednesday when two plainclothes officers ambushed him and two others from front and behind.

"We were leaving the (Westlake Center) protest, the street was empty, and I was talking on a cell phone, trying to locate the car. We were leaving," said Pastor. "Out of nowhere, one plainclothes officer rushed me from one direction while another came up from behind. They threw me on the ground, stepped on my arm and put me in a martial-arts hold."

He said his initital statement to the police - that he was trying to "coordinate my location" to find the car - was interpreted as an admission that he was a "ringleader" of the protests. He was initially charged with aiding and abetting the protests, but on Friday, he was charged only with failure to disperse and released on $25 bail.

Bill Walker

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