American Protesters Across Country Join in Global Anti-war Rally

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, March 16, 2003

American Protesters Across Country Join in Global Anti-war Rally

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American Protesters Join in Global Anti-war Rally

Waving banners and chanting slogans, tens of thousands of protesters from more than 100 cities in the United States marched around the White House Saturday for what might be a last chance to dissuade the Bush administration from launching a war against Iraq.

They joined in hundreds of thousands of protesters in other parts of the world in a rally against an imminent US-led war on Iraq. US President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar will meet in the Azores Islands on Sunday for urgent consultation, which might include talks about waging war without UN approval.

"More and more people have come to realize that Bush has lied about every excuse he made for going to the war," Sara Flounders, one of the coordinators, said, as people holding banners with words such as "Listen to The World" or "War With Iraq Will Not Stop Terrorism" marched nearby.

US Park Police said permits were issued for 20,000 to march but the gathering seemed much larger. Additional police officers from New York and San Francisco were sent in to help handle the large crowds, but the rally went on peacefully.

"This war is no difference from all other wars in the last 100 years," Sarah Sloan, one of the organizers, said in a speech. The Bush administration is waging the war only to pursue interests on behalf of American corporations and banks, she said to applaud.

The demonstration brought together people from various of political or ideological backgrounds in the country, including conservatives, liberals, religious people and atheists. Taking part in the rally for different reasons against the war, they shared the same urgency that a war was imminent.

"I feel hopeless because I can't do anything to avoid the war," said Amnelies Visser, who is in her 60s, holding a sign with a hand-drawn dove, a sign of peace. She said she still hoped that the White House would hear the anti-war voices of hers and millions of others before ordering an invasion of Iraq.

Hundreds of thousands of people also took to the streets Saturday in major cities in countries such as Spain, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand as well as Japan and South Korea. This was the second large-scale worldwide demonstration since Feb.15, when millions of protesters rallied in cities from Europe to the Middle East to Asia.

Activists planned peace vigils in hundreds of cities worldwide on Sunday evening. Organizers at International ANSWER, a coalition of anti-war groups, also asked people to leave their jobs, their homes or whatever they are doing on the day that war begins, and walk outside.

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