Anti-war Protests Go on across Britain

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, March 22, 2003

Anti-war Protests Go on across Britain

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Demonstrations against the ongoing war on Iraq continued Friday across Britain while main organizers were busying preparing for Saturday's London peace march which wasexpected to attract hundreds of thousands of Britons.

Local reports said school students disrupted many city centers and stopped traffic, while more than 5,000 demonstrators massed atthe Parliament Square in London.

At the Fairford air base used by US B-52 bombers, Gloucestershire in southwestern England, protesters held placards and said they felt "sickened" as eight of the 14 giant warplanes took off for the Gulf on Friday morning.

"I felt so helpless and useless being so close and not able to do anything. I know the flight time to Iraq (and) I know what willbe happening," protester Adele Perret, 27, was quoted by local reports as saying.

Rush-hour traffic in the center of London was also hit by the Pedal For Peace protest Friday morning, when dozens of protesters,shouting anti-war slogans, cycled through Whitehall to Parliament Square.

One of the cyclists said: "If America and Britain spent as muchon renewable energy as they do on arms, the world would be a different place."

There was also an anti-war "bikes not bombs" protest by cyclists in Sheffield on Friday, organized by the Sheffield Against The War group.

In Manchester, police arrested 16 people after protesters triedto block one of the main commuter routes into the city center.

In Liverpool, police were called in to remove protesters including many schoolchildren who blocked the Mersey tunnel. Hundreds of schools were affected across the country.

Even the West Coast main rail-line was temporarily blocked by protesters. It was reported that 50 people occupied an army recruitment center in Cambridge, and 300 people blocked roads in Cardiff.

Emergency rallies closed workplaces including local government offices, post sorting-offices and colleges, according to the localreports.

Two men and a woman were charged with obstructing a highway after 700 protesters turned out in the city center of Oxford on Thursday night, Thames Valley Police were quoted as saying Friday.

Meanwhile, British faith leaders continued to call on politicalleaders to secure a "just, lasting and secure peace" in Iraq and throughout the Middle East.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said war with Iraq could only be "a limited means to an end."

He was joined by five of Britain's most senior religious leaders from three faiths outside Lambeth Palace as he read out a joint statement.

"We pray that early efforts to achieve a just, lasting and secure peace both in Iraq and throughout the Middle East may follow swiftly in the footsteps of war," said Williams.

"We urge those with the power to help make real this vision to remain true, amid the clamor of conflict, to that noble and vital purpose," he said.

His move came as the Muslim Association of Britain urged Muslims to use Friday prayers to pray for peace. Hundreds of mosques across the country are expected to take part in the special prayers.

Both the two leading religious groups in Britain -- the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, and the Muslim Council of Britain -- urged religious communities to come together to prayfor peace.

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