Thousands in Asia, Europe protest over Iraq war

News, September 2003, www.aljazeerah.info

Jordan Times, Sunday, September 28, 2003

LONDON (AP) — More than 10,000 protesters demanding the pullout of coalition troops from Iraq marched in central London on Saturday, chanting "No more war" and "Bush and Blair have got to go" while thousands more in other countries raised their voices against the occupation of Iraq.

"War in Iraq — Illegal, Immoral and Illogical" read one banner as people of all ages strode out of Hyde Park in central London and through the streets towards Trafalgar Square, banging drums and whistling.

Police estimated the orderly crowd had reached 10,000 and was still growing as more demonstrators joined in the first major national protest in Britain since Iraqi regime fell.

A major theme was criticism of Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush, partners in the military coalition that drove Saddam Hussein out.

"George Bush, Uncle Sam, Iraq will be your Vietnam," chanted some young marchers.

Demonstration organisers reject the justification Blair's government used for war — the threat of Iraqi biological and chemical weapons. No such weapons have yet been found by occupation forces in Iraq.

In Greece, Cyprus, South Korea and Turkey thousands more demonstrators took to the streets.

Outside the US embassy in Athens, demonstrators hurled bottles at riot police during a rally to protest the occupation of Iraq and the Palestinian territories.

Chanting "Occupiers out" and "Freedom for Palestine," about 3,000 protesters joined the rally after attending an open-air concert in central Athens. Police deployed hundreds of officers in riot gear along the route of the rally, but there were no reports of arrests or injury.

Protests were also staged in other parts of Greece and on island of Crete, outside an American naval base at Souda Bay. The base supports the US 6th Fleet and spy planes.

In Seoul, thousands of activists protested a US request to send South Korean troops to Iraq. Protesters chanted "No war!" and carried banners saying "End the occupation in Iraq" and "Oppose a plan to dispatch S. Korean combat troops to Iraq."

Some 4,000 protesters in the Turkish capital, Ankara, shouted slogans and unfurled banners to support the Palestinian cause and demand an end to the US-led occupation of Iraq. Rock bands played at the rally and celebrities demanded that Turkey not deploy peacekeepers. Hundreds more gathered at a similar rally in Istanbul and burned American and Israeli flags.

Protests against Israeli policy towards Palestinians were also part of the London march, where the Muslim Association of Britain was one of the organisers.

Opposition to the war has always been strong in Britain.

Several large peace protests were held during the war, though none matched the vast rally Feb. 15, before the conflict began, when between 750,000 and two million people marched through central London.

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, another organiser of Saturday's march, said a big demonstration would send a strong message to the government that the public did not condone what it called "lies" used to justify the war.

"The British people have the right to know the truth about the events leading to the illegal war on Iraq, which is causing untold suffering to the people of that country," group chairwoman Kate Hudson said.

Allegations that the Blair government exaggerated the threat of Iraqi weapons to make a case for war have plunged the Blair government into its worst crisis, and opinion polls show a steady decline in public faith in the prime minister.

As Blair's Labour Party prepares for its annual conference next week, a new poll taken Sept. 11-16 and published Saturday in The Financial Times found 50 per cent of those questioned said he should step aside and let someone else in the party lead the country. The newspaper did not give the sample size or margin of error.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

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