Anti-war Demonstrations Roll Across World against US-led Attack on Iraq

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, March 23, 2003

Anti-war Demonstrations Roll Across World against US-led Attack on Iraq

Waves of anti-war demonstrations rippled across the world on Saturday to protest against US-led military attacks on Iraq and call for an end to the war.

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Waves of anti-war demonstrations rippled across the world on Saturday to protest against US-led military attacks on Iraq and call for an end to the war.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in downtown Manhattan in New York on Saturday in what is estimated to be the largest anti-war rally in New York since the war on Iraq broke out.

The procession, which stretched across several blocks in downtown Manhattan, was constantly conjoined by more protesters. By 2 p.m., thousands of protesters had already reached Washington Square Park miles away.

The rally was organized by United for Peace and Justice, the same group that led a massive protest near the United Nations last month that drew more than 100,000 demonstrators despite bad weather.

March organizer Leslie Cagan of United for Peace and Justice said it could be the largest protest among several planned across the nation Saturday.

"We're now a movement to end this war as quickly as possible," the organizer said.

According to the march organizers, beside New York, anti-war protests were also planned Saturday in other major US cities, including Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington.

In Britain, tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of London and other cities on Saturday to protest against the war with Iraq, the biggest rallies since the start of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Organized by the Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Muslim Association of Britain, the demonstrators started from two assembly points at Embankment and Gower Street in the British capital, merging at Piccadilly Circus before heading into Hyde Park for the rally.

Shouting anti-war slogans and beating drums, the demonstrators carried streamers and banners bearing such slogans as "Stop war on Iraq", "Stop, look, listen. No war in our name. No-one seems to be listening."

A total of 3,500 policemen have been called in to line the route of the London march, which by mid-afternoon organizers said had topped the 100,000 mark.

Further demonstrations are being held in cities across the country and at US military bases.

Thousands of anti-war protesters marched from Fairford Town in Gloucestershire in west England to the local RAF base, where US B-52 bombers are based with heavy police patrol. The bombers are believed to have played a key role in Friday night's strikes on Iraq.

Meanwhile, up to 1,000 people gathered for a "Foil the Base" demonstration at the US base at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire. Hundreds arrived clad in tin foil, which organizers hope will disrupt communications by blocking satellite signals.

In Prime Minister Tony Blair's constituency in north-east England, about 100 protesters gathered outside Trimdon Labor Club in Sedgefield to watch a caricature of Tony Blair jump through a hoop on the orders of a cartoon George W. Bush.

In Scotland, several thousand people took to the streets of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland, and Glasgow to voice their opposition to war, with smaller protests reported in Aberdeen, Inverness and Dundee.

The weekend marches followed days of protests across the country.

In other parts of Europe, there were demonstrations involving tens of thousands of people France, Germany, Finland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and other countries on Saturday.

In the Spanish capital Madrid, police fired rubber bullets to disperse protesters for the second day running. In Barcelona, police said 150,000 protested, while town hall officials estimated up to half a million.

About 90,000 people marched in Paris. Police said 30,000 people marched in Bern, Switzerland. In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, police said about 25,000 people marched against the war. In Berlin,about 40,000 protested.

In the Asia-Pacific region, anti-war demonstrations held by different political parties, groups and people from all walks of life continue to break out Saturday.

Tens of thousands of people attended peace rallies throughout New Zealand to protest against war in Iraq.

An anti-war protest rally was held Saturday morning at the Civic Square in Wellington. Thousands of protesters left the Square after the rally, chanting anti-war slogans and carrying banners as they marched to Parliament and on to the United States Embassy.

The anti-war protest rallies were also held in Auckland, Nelsonand Christchurch on the South Island.

Thousands of South Koreans held rallies to condemn the United States for waging the war against Iraq without the approval by the United Nations.

Several non-governmental organizations also attended the anti-war demonstrations held near the US embassy in central Seoul and apark in eastern Seoul.

The protesters, mostly are young people, held banners as "Stop the Shameful War", "No War" and "Don't attack Iraq".

A group of about 600 Thai Muslims, calling themselves the Muslim Group for Peace, gathered peacefully in front of the US Embassy in Thailand on Wireless Road to call for peace and early end of the renewed war in Iraq.

Similar calls have also been made from Thai Muslims in the South who called for people to boycott US and UK products.

Bangladesh was paralyzed today as a nationwide half-day strike to protest the US-led military campaign in Iraq was held, disrupting transport and businesses.

The eight-hour strike started from 6:00 am (0000 GMT). Most of the private offices, schools, shops and stock markets were closed in Dhaka and southeastern Chittagong, the second largest city in Bangladesh.

The activists carried banners, placards and replicas of tank and missiles reading "We want war-free world" and "Stop war in Iraq."

Effigies of US President George W Bush were also being carried around and then torched.

Indian students and political leaders held demonstrations in several cities to protest military action against Iraq led by the United states.

Anti-US rallies were held for the second day on Saturday in Uttar Pradesh with Samajwadi Party activists burning en effigy of US President George W. Bush and workers of the Nationalist Congress Party taking out a peace march in Lucknow, capital of thestate some 500 kilometers east of New Delhi.

The Communist Party of India would stage an anti-war march in Lucknow on Sunday and in New Delhi next Thursday to condemn the USfor its "imperialistic designs."

In the south city of Bangalore, 2,060 kilometers of New Delhi, protesters "executed" an effigy of US President Bush to flay the US-imposed war on Iraq and demanded an immediate halt to the war.

Some Philippine dailies ran editorials Saturday critical of US-led war on Iraq, saying it has set a dangerous precedent and placed at stake a system governing the relations between states.

Philippine Daily Inquirer said in an editorial that by going towar without a clear United Nations mandate, US President George W.Bush has destroyed the multilateralism that has characterized international security and comity since the end of World War II.

"It is not for nothing that fears have been expressed about theattack on Iraq as the trigger to another world war. Bush has pushed the world to the brink of the first global war in the new millennium," said the newspaper, one of the largest circulated dailies in the Philippines.

There were also reports of anti-war protests in the Middle Eastregion and Africa in the day.

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