The Metropolitan Police Department expects a crowd of 10,000 to 25,000 demonstrators Saturday and Sunday, but “we never know until they come,” said MPD Head Public Information Officer Joe Gentile.

Protesters are expected for a smattering of causes, ranging from shutting down the scheduled World Bank/International Monetary Fund meetings to ending the war on terrorism.

Activist groups are also coordinating teach-ins on issues like closing the School of Americas and protest basics, such as street theater workshops and “nonviolence skills” training.

According to GW officials, MPD will close H Street between 18th and 20th streets and 19th Street between Pennsylvania Avenue and G Street Saturday and Sunday, although protesters at the nearby World Bank and IMF may number only in the hundreds.

Gentile said the city will probably close streets in the “immediate area” of the World Bank and IMF, which have been declared foreign missions, given the status of embassies and chancelleries, for the weekend.

Gentile also said MPD has activated the entire department for 12-hour shifts in D.C.’s seven police districts and asked property owners to remove items like dumpsters, mailboxes and newspaper boxes from the streets for the weekend.

He said an undisclosed number of civil disturbance unit officers will be on duty.

While the demonstrations fall almost exactly two years after tens of thousands flooded GW streets to protest World Bank/IMF lending policies and call for the cancellation of third world debt, organizers expect anti-war and Middle East-related rallies to overshadow participation near campus this weekend.

“The IMF meetings are not as important as the ones in the fall, because in the fall bigger policy meetings are held,” said Robert Weissman, a spokesman for Mobilization for Global Justice, a D.C.-based activist group.

The weekend was originally dedicated to rallying and lobbying to change America’s policies about Colombia. The Youth and Student Peace Coalition, which will protest the war in Afghanistan, rescheduled an April 13 march to join demonstrations this weekend. They will march alongside Colombia Mobilization, a coalition of more than 60 national organizations that protest issues like U.S. aid to Colombia. Together, the groups hope to make their demonstrations more visible.

“We are happy to work with a group such as the Youth and Student Peace Coalition because we are not in competition,” said Hendrik Voss, a member of the Colombia Mobilization.

-Darren Gest contributed to this report.