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Anti-war rallies ricochet across world Saturday, 22-Mar-2003 10:10AM Story from AFP
Copyright 2003 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
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LONDON, March 22 (AFP) - Major anti-war demonstrations swept across the globe Saturday, drawing Asians, Arabs and Europeans into the streets, ahead of US rallies, in protest against the third day of the US-led war on Iraq.
In a third straight day of protest, hundreds of thousands massed in front of US embassies and in city centers, branding US President George W. Bush and his allies Australian Prime Minister John Howard and British Prime Minister Tony Blair "terrorists" and "war criminals" for sending troops to fight the Baghdad regime.
Europe at midday picked up speed in protests that drew an alleged several hundred thousand in London, 30,000 in Berlin, 20,000 in Amsterdam, and thousands in Athens, Copenhagen, Paris, Stockholm, Vienna, including a record-breaking 20,000 in the Finnish capital of Helsinki.
Asian rallies, meanwhile, drew outraged outbursts from Islamic militants, chants for peace by Buddhist monks, and several groups who burned Bush in effigy.
In the Middle East, tens of thousands wished "Death to America and Great Britain" and denounced Arab leaders for not defending Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from attack.
In Jakarta, the capital of the world's most populous Muslim nation, 3,000 protestors picketed in front of the US embassy before moving on to the nearby British embassy. The crowd, which included many women, carried a coffin to symbolize the death of the United Nations.
Peace protestors staged rallies in two other Indonesian cities, as well as in predominantly Muslim Bangladesh and Pakistan.
In South Korea, Buddhist monks struck giant drums at a Seoul rally of 2,000 to console the spirits of victims of the war.
"Bush is the war criminal," human rights activist Park Won-Soon said to the crowd, which condemned Seoul's decision Friday to send non-combatant troops to help US-led forces to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Australia, which has sent 2,000 combat troops to aid nearly 300,000 US and British soldiers in the Gulf, saw four anti-war protests, including one in Western Australia's capital, Perth, where an estimated 10,000 people marched.
Thousands more massed in New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam in a further show of opposition to a war without UN backing.
In Japan, too, protestors in front of Osaka's US consulate decried Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's unwavering support for the US bid to oust Saddam.
In the Middle East, tens of thousands -- mostly students -- protested, burning US and British flags and waving copies of the Koran.
A day earlier, fiery clashes with riot police broke out at rallies throughout the region and led to the death of two in Yemen.
"Bush may kill Saddam, but he cannot kill our Islam and destroy the ground of Islam," said Ahmed, one of 20,000 students who rallied on Cairo's Al Azhar campus.
A further 6,000 students and 8,000 others demonstrated in gatherings elsewhere in the Egyptian capital, as well as in Alexandria on the Mediterranean and Suez on the Red Sea.
In the Gaza Strip, nearly 10,000 people, mostly students, carried banners of the radical Islamic group Hamas and waved Iraqi flags.
Speaking to the crowd, Hamas leader Islmail Haniyeh encouraged Iraqis to use suicide bombing operations, "since that is the only language the Americans understand."
More anti-war protests took place in Syria and were planned in Lebanon, where a group of 10 lawyers began a hunger strike in support of the Iraqi people.
European rallies drew energetic crowds while thousands of riot police were on hand, a day after protests in Athens and Madrid turned violent, leading to dozens of arrests and injuries.
In London, Stop the War Coalition spoke of hundreds of thousands of participants thus far, although no official figures were available, while they did not expect the million-strong turn-out of February 15.
One participant, 14-year-old Beatrice, said "Tony Blair should listen to his people rather to his best friend Bush."
In Gloucestershire, western England, several thousand protestors were expected outside Royal Air Force's Fairford base, where US air force B-52 bombers being used for attacks on Iraq are stationed.
In Greece, 30,000 people -- 7,000 by police count -- banded together behind "Men above Profits" banners and anti-war placards in the capital, following two straight days of demonstration which each drew 150,000, then over 200,000.
Italians, too, launched more than 80 anti-war rallies, a day after a pro-peace farmers' rally in Rome drew an estimated 300,000. Other cities holding protests against the Italian government's pro-US stance and the war included Naples, Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Milan and Palermo.
Spaniards also staged several protests against Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's part in the US coalition, with a group of actors chanting in Madrid: "We'll always have Paris" -- the mythic line from "Casablanca" now used to back France's anti-war efforts.
Denmark saw up to 10,000 stage a protest in front of the US embassy, denouncing both Bush and their own government, which Friday became the third country to offer combat troops for the Iraq war.
France and Germany -- leaders of a failed diplomatic bid to stop the US and British war drive -- saw huge protests, as well, including 15,000 Kurds out in Frankurt.
Protestors in Vienna pleaded for "More sex, less Bush", two ministers joined thousands of Swedes in their calls for the protection of civilian lives in Iraq and in Norway, protestors prayed with Archbishop Gunnar Staalsett against "a bloody and painful event".
In the United States, marchers were expected to converge on the White House in Washington, while protests were also planned in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities.
Since the war began on Thursday, hundreds of anti-war rallies across the United States have swelled and intensified, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets, some paralyzing traffic and clashing with police.
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