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Man hits IMF chief in face with pie at trade meet

BANGKOK: An unidentified man pushed a cream pie into the face of IMF chief Michel Camdessus as he was preparing to give his last official speech as the agency's managing director on Sunday.

Camdessus was not injured and was preparing to go ahead with his speech. The man attacked Camdessus as he was chatting to delegates at a summit of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), witnesses said.

The IMF chief tried to shield his face with a clipboard but was sprayed with cream from the pie. The assailant was bundled away by police.

Camdessus, a keynote speaker at the weeklong UNCTAD meeting, seemed unfazed by the incident.

There was no immediate explanation for the attack.

Human rights groups and left wing activists have been protesting on the fringes of the summit against what they see as the evils of free trade and its impact on poorer developing countries.

They accuse agencies like the International Monetary Fund of increasing the gap between rich and poor and catering only to the needs of giant Western corporations.-Reuters