NATO Weekend Full of Talk, Not Action

Crews will work through the night removing the security measures added for the NATO summit. (Shawn Thew — for The Washington Post) Related Links Clinton Coaxes Allies to Fragile Consensus Text of Clinton's Closing Speech Complete Summit Coverage Summit Photos: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 26, 1999; Page B1

Fifty years of NATO.

Three days of summitry.

Two White House dinners.

One communique.

Zero arrests.

Surrendering downtown Washington to the locals after a three-day siege, the leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and 23 other countries held their final briefings yesterday and pulled out of town, leaving few signs that they were ever here.

As banners and barricades came down and weary security forces exhaled, NATO's 50th anniversary summit ended on a note of quiet satisfaction and, if truth be told, a certain gratifying dullness.

Scores of colonels and generals waged war in cyberspace. Foreign journalists lounged outdoors, smoking and taking in the sun. Motorcade drivers all along 14th Street NW napped in their leather seats. A military aide read a Tom Clancy novel in the shade.

Even the war protesters seemed to run out of steam. At 14th Street and Independence Avenue, where police had feared demonstrators might try to block the 14th Street Bridge, there were more tourists than peace activists.

"I've seen more passion at a Catholic high Mass," complained an American cameraman as maybe 20 protesters marched back and forth on the sidewalk between two hot dog vendors, chanting slogans and waving signs.

The D.C. bomb squad stayed busy, but every call all weekend was a false alarm. The greatest drama occurred Saturday night, when Secret Service officers returned to their sedan at 17th and I streets NW and heard a ticking sound.

Sniffer dogs arrived, followed by a bomb-de tecting robot. After an operation that lasted 2 1/2 hours, robot and man teamed to reach the conclusion that Secret Service officers had left the car's lights on. The battery was dying. The tick-tick-tick was its last gasp.

D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey sounded pleased as he looked back on traffic and security arrangements for the largest gathering of foreign leaders ever in Washington -- 42 presidents and prime ministers, plus more than 1,600 foreign ministers, defense ministers, military chiefs of staff, advisers and retainers.

Reporting that there were no summit-related arrests -- and no homicides anywhere in the city -- Ramsey called cooperation among local and federal agencies "remarkable" and said he was "very proud" of the often-maligned D.C. police department.

"We were able to have a situation where those people who wanted to voice their opinions against NATO were able to fully exercise their rights in peace," Ramsey said. "At the same time, the nations that participated were able to come together for a summit to express their ideas. They, too, were able to do it in peace."

Ramsey, who ordered the entire department to remain on duty in 12-hour shifts during the three-day summit, said everyone would receive certificates, ribbons and pins. Asked about regrets, the chief said, "It would have been nice if it hadn't rained Friday."

The summit conference itself was a joint production of the White House and a local host committee that raised $8 million in cash, goods and services. Most meetings were staged in the stylishly renovated Andrew Mellon Auditorium, and media briefings took place in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, workplace of many of the 3,000 media employees with yellow summit credentials.

At his closing news conference, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana praised the set-up only faintly, declaring that "the facilities have been reasonably good." Reporters and summit staff members alike groused about the food. The price (free) was right, but as one well-traveled U.S. reporter said yesterday, "This gives meaning to the American idea of food as fuel."

The leaders saw little of Washington, and Washington saw little of them. They zipped back and forth across town at mach speed, with sirens blaring. At least Azerbaijan's president, Heydar Aliyev, managed a pizza-eating trip to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Several other dignitaries lamented the cooped-up conditions of international summitry.

"I have seen the Reagan center, I have seen the Mellon auditorium, I have seen the White House. Everything is nice, but it was so tight, the schedule, that I didn't see enough," said Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook also praised the meeting, but pouted, "I would have liked to get to the art gallery, but I was unable to." Farich Khairulin, 52, an Azeri photo journalist on his first trip to Washington, was so busy that he slept only four hours a night. Walking back to his hotel yesterday, he posed in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue, with the U.S. Capitol looming behind him, as a colleague snapped a photo.

A Secret Service agent quickly approached and asked him not to stand in the middle of the empty street. Khairulin graciously stepped aside, then asked for a "photograph with an American policeman, the best policeman in the world."

The agent smiled, but turned him down, adding, "I'm not a policeman."

Elsewhere, John Eisenzamner, 41, of Roanoke, tooled through the quiet downtown streets in a red Nissan. From the sunroof, the war opponent flew a blue NATO flag with a swastika.

"That's my NATO Nazi flag," Eisenzamner explained. "I missed the protest yesterday, so I thought I'd come out here today."

One participant likely to have a more lively time on the next stage of his journey is Czech President Vaclav Havel. The diehard Frank Zappa fan was bound for Minnesota, where the former dissident was to have attended a rock concert last night and meet a fellow iconoclast, the state's new governor, former pro wrestler Jesse Ventura.

"President Havel has an enthusiasm for nonpolitical politicians. Governor Ventura won by defying the political parties on both sides, and that may appeal to President Havel," said Martin Weiss, the Czech Embassy's press secretary. "While he may not be fond of wrestling, he is fond of people from all walks of life." Now that NATO has packed up and left, the Federal Triangle no longer looks like Red Square during the Soviet era. Restraining walls are gone, schools will reopen today and workers will be back on the job. Rush hour will resume its usual contours.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

Staff writers Charles Babington, Maria Elena Fernandez, Hamil R. Harris, Brian Mooar, Philip P. Pan, Steve Vogel and Debbi Wilgoren contributed to this report.