Anti-war Protests Worldwide, UN Gets Tough on Iraq

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, January 20, 2003

Anti-war Protests Worldwide, UN Gets Tough on Iraq

As Russia and the Arab countries intensified their efforts to defuse the crisis in the Gulf region, hundreds of thousands of anti-war protesters took to the streets across the world on Saturday to oppose to the United State's possible war against Iraq.

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Thousands and thousands of protesters took to streets around the world on Saturday to urge Washington to back off its plans to wage war on Iraq as UN arms experts demanded Iraq provide more cooperation.

Iraq President Saddam Hussein hailed the demonstrations, saying they showed Iraq had international support for standing up to the United States.

"They are supporting you because they know that evildoers target Iraq to silence and dissenting voice to their evil and destructive policies," Saddam told senior military officers, including his son Qusay, commander of the elite Republican Guards.

But with Washington making clear it believed a case for war was already developing, UN inspectors voiced fresh frustration after raiding an Iraqi scientist's home and finding 3,000 pages of material apparently related to enrichment of uranium that could be used for nuclear weapons.

"Iraq should be proactive. We shouldn't have to find these on our own," Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, told CNN on the eve of showdown talks in Baghdad over whether Iraq has any weapons of mass destruction.

The scientist, physicist Faleh Hassan lashed back at ElBaradei, telling reporters the papers contained information already declared and accusing "Mafia-like" inspectors of trying to use his wife's illness to persuade him to leave his homeland.

"ElBaradei should not rush issues when circumstances are tense ... I'm ready to go through the papers with him page by page," physicist Faleh Hassan told reporters.

"This document is mostly personal, it has nothing at all to do with any weapons of mass destruction... It is already declared, it has no value," he added.

The arms inspectors also canceled a helicopter mission to a "no-fly" zone in northern Iraq on Saturday when Iraqi authorities insisted on accompanying them, fearing the UN helicopters might be caught in cross-fire from Western planes patrolling the zones, CNN reported.

Seas of Protester

In the biggest wave of anti-war protests since the start of the US-led military build-up in the Gulf region, protesters poured onto streets across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia banging drums and chanting.

Protest organizers in Washington said half a million people gathered, shouting slogans denouncing what many called a war for oil and brandishing placards declaring "Regime Change Starts at Home" and "Would Jesus Bomb Them?."

"I think if we want to talk about threats right now, the biggest threat to world peace is coming from Washington," said lawyer Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a protest organizer.

Thousands of Japanese peace activists in Tokyo carried plastic guns stuffed with flowers.

In Beirut, the message from demonstrators was graver, with one protester shouting, "Sign your name on a suicide attack on US interests."

US President Bush has branded Iraq a threat to world security and said he would lead a "coalition of the willing" to force Baghdad to give up any weapons of mass destruction if it did not cooperate with UN inspectors.

Secretary of State Colin Powell told a German newspaper this week Washington believed there would be "a persuasive case" by the end of January that Iraq was not cooperating.

The White House has seized on the discovery of empty chemical warheads in Iraq as evidence of non-compliance, calling the weapons cache "serious and troubling," although UN weapons chief Hans Blix played down the significance of the find.

Some inspectors returned on Saturday to the depot where they found the warheads. Others investigated mobile laboratories, state companies and colleges but, as usual, did not speak to reporters.

Diplomacy?

Trying to resolve the crisis through diplomacy, Syria offered to host a meeting that could lead to an Ankara summit of Iraq's neighbors, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and Turkey, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported.

Washington has asked several of these countries for assistance to launch any attack on Iraq, but most strongly oppose military action.

Egypt said the summit would not discuss the possibility of Saddam going into exile.

US Military Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Richard Myers told a briefing in Rome on Saturday the build-up toward war with Iraq was "totally reversible."

"The key to that is the Iraqi regime itself," he said.

Blix and ElBaradei will begin two days of talks in Baghdad on Sunday essential to the next major report they are to present to the UN Security Council on Jan. 27 on Iraqi compliance.

Many governments fear the United States, which has been pouring warplanes, ships and tens of thousands of troops into the Gulf region, could use the Jan. 27 report as a trigger for war.

Iraq says it has no banned weapons, having destroyed anything that would have breached UN resolutions before inspectors returned in November after a four-year break.

In Britain, anti-war protesters from London to Liverpool took to the streets, lampooning Bush's staunchest ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as a US poodle in their efforts to rally opposition to a military strike on Iraq.

Tens of thousands of Syrians marched through the streets of Damascus, blocking traffic for hours to protest against what they saw as a pre-set US plan to attack a fellow Arab state.

About 1,000 people gathered in Cairo to urge the Egyptian government to stop US and British warships from using the Suez Canal for a possible war. In Pakistan's city of Rawalpindi, several thousand people formed a human chain.

In France, thousands protested to demand Paris use its UN Security Council veto against an Iraq war. President Jacques Chirac has said a unilateral attack by Washington would violate international law.

Iraq Seeks Libya's Support

Libyan leader Mummar Gaddafi met in Tripoli on Saturday with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, who toured the North African region to drum up support for Baghdad in its standoff with Washington.

According to Libyan state news agency Jana, Aziz delivered a message from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein "explaining the situation in Iraq."

A Libyan official said Aziz left Libya hours before Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak arrived there.

Aziz's departure quashed rumors that he might hold a three-person meeting in Libya over the Iraqi crisis.

Aziz, who visited Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco this week before traveling to Libya, was one of the top Iraqi officials dispatched to Arab capitals to rally support in its showdown with Washington.

Meanwhile, Syria Saturday urged Iraq's neighbors to push for a peaceful solution to the weapons crisis.

The Syrian news agency said Damascus proposed to host the meeting of foreign ministers from Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and Turkey.

Syrian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Faruk al-Shareh arrived in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Saturday to discuss the proposal. He will also visit Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said on Saturday in Cairo that his country has accepted an invitation to a regional conference on the Iraqi issue.

"Egypt has in principle accepted a Turkish invitation for the gathering aimed at seeking a peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis," he said.

Earlier this month, Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul visited several regional capitals, including Cairo, in an effort to build consensus on a peaceful end to the standoff between Washington and Baghdad, which denies charges it is concealing weapons of mass destruction.

Russia Continues Mediation, Germany Says No to War on Iraq

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Sulatanov said in Amman, the capital of Jordan, on Saturday that his country has kept contacts with Iraq, Europe and the United States in an effort to find a diplomatic solution to the Iraqi crisis.

After talks with Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Masher on the current situation in the region, especially the Iraqi issue, Sulatanov described their meeting as a sign of Russia's eagerness to hold talks with its Jordanian partner.

Masher said the two sides discussed the diplomatic efforts which are being exerted to prevent a possible war against Iraq.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Saturday in Berlin that Germany's refusal to take part in a war against Iraq would be reflected in how the country votes in the UN Security Council on any resolution seeking war authorization.

He said Germany might vote against a war or abstain. "We will not take part in a military intervention in Iraq, and that is exactly how our voting behavior will be in all international bodies, including the United Nations."

UN Calls for More Proactive Cooperation from Baghdad

UN chief inspector Hans Blix said in Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, on Saturday that Iraq was not cooperating sufficiently with the UN inspectors.

Upon his arrival in Cyprus from Paris, Blix stressed it is in Iraq's interests to cooperate with the weapons inspectors.

Blix, who leaves for Baghdad on Sunday, said he will hold long discussions with the Iraqi leaders about several items related to stocktaking which has taken place after the inspections began.

He added that he will "talk about Iraq's declaration of 12,000 pages which we do not think answers the questions that are raised."

Commenting on an earlier statement by US Secretary of State Colin Powell that there is "persuasive" evidence that Iraq is not cooperating with UN inspectors, Blix said: "We are getting intelligence from various parts of the world and on the basis of that we are mounting some of the inspections that are undertaken."

Asked how much time the inspection was likely to need, Blix said "if we have very full, sincerely and genuinely cooperation, it could be fast."

"We can not say whether they have weapons of mass destruction, we do not close the dossier because there are too many gaps," the UN chief inspector said.

Meanwhile, an Iraqi scientist Saturday denied that the documents found at his home by UN arms inspectors are linked to the banned nuclear weapons program.

"The inspectors put their hands on personal documents which have nothing to do with the former program," 55-year-old physicist Faleh Hassan told a press conference at the Press Center of the Iraqi Information Ministry.

Confirming the documents are about Iraq's previous experimental program for using lasers to enrich uranium, Hassan stressed that Iraq did not continue with the tests after 1988 and he himself never worked on that project.

UN weapons inspectors on Thursday found the documents at Hassan's home when they carried out their first unannounced inspections on private residences in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

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