The Global Antiwar Movement Again on the Streets
Our people ... everywhere against the war
March 22: The Global Antiwar Movement Again on the Streets
Posted by: Correspondent on Saturday, March 22, 2003 - 01:57 PM
THE WORLD (AFP, AP, Online Resources and Frontlines correspondents) -
Denouncing the Australian prime minister, demonstrators in Sidney chanted:
"John Howard, you can't hide. We charge you with genocide."
"Bush, murderer," chanted protesters in Paris, while protesters in
Helsinki, Finland roared, "George Bush, CIA, how many kids did you kill
today?"
"Fight back, Americans are killers," protesters chanted outside the
U.S. Embassy in Jakarta.
"Oh Arab army! Where are you?" the Cairo students chanted, calling on
Arab nations to send troops to support Iraq.
"Shock and Awe, is Shock of Shame" chanted some demonstrators in New
York. "No Empire, No War" screamed others at the San Francisco rally.
"Bush, Blair stop la guerre" shouted tens of thousands of French
demonstrators.
"Blair Out!" and "Bring Our Boys Home!," proclaimed placards at the
massive London's demonstration today.
"US Troops out of Germany" was one of the slogans at a massive march
in Berlin.
"Bush is a butcher" said demonstrators in Mauritania
Britain: The Backlash against Tony Blair
"I think Blair has gone totally against the wishes of the British
people," said protester Rick Edwards, out with his eight-year-old daughter
for a rally that organizers said swelled to at least 250,000 people, but
which police put at only "upwards of 60,000."
Blair's commitment of 45,000 British troops alongside nearly a quarter
of a million American forces for a war without U.N. blessing has divided
Britain and put Blair in political peril.
Many protesters said they did not expect British Prime Minister Tony
Blair or President Bush to listen to them. Many former supporters of Tony
Blair were among the marchers - some carrying antiwar banners signed by the
Labour Party - and some of them stated categorically that they will not vote
for him or his Labour Party in the next elections.
About 5,000 people protested at an Air Force base in Fairford,
England, from where U.S. B-52 bombers have been flying sorties. They laid
flowers at the main gate for "the death of democracy."
Scotland: 30,000 on the Streets
Ten thousand took to the streets in both Glasgow and Edinburgh today,
and there were further demos in Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness and Skye.
In acts of mass civil disobedience people blocked streets. In Glasgow
police have hemmed in demonstrators and made several arrests. In Edinburgh 5
were arrested and are to be held till Monday despite police assurances that
they were to be released this evening.
France: "Bush, Blair, Stop La Guerre"
In France, whose government have opposed the war, demonstrators were
out in force. In Paris, Palestinian and Kurdish supporters joined anti-war
activists, students and left wing parties in street protests numbering some
100,000 people - according to the first press reports.
Across France anti-war demonstrations drew tens of thousands more in
at least 70 other cities and towns, prompting a massive police operation.
Shouting "Bush, Blair stop la guerre" (Bush, Blair stop the war) and
some carrying banners saying "Yankee, go home," several thousand protesters
headed toward the Place de la Nation in eastern Paris.
French protesters singled out the McDonald's fast food chain as a
symbol of American influence. Protesters pelted rocks at a restaurant in
Strasbourg and others burst into a McDonald's in Lyon.
Germany: US Bases Out of Germany!
In Germany some 150,000 took to the streets, including some 60,000 in
Berlin where demonstrators marched near the American embassy and shouted
demands to end the conflict.
Skirmishes broke out between demonstrators and police outside a U.S.
military base in Stuttgart, where 800 protesters gathered. Police used
truncheons to remove some sit-down strikers in front of the U.S. European
command headquarters.
In Germany's financial capital Frankfurt some 25,000 Kurds from across
Europe rallied to protest the war and demand a free Kurdistan. Thousands of
anti-war protesters filled the streets in Heidelberg, Mannheim, Cologne and
Düsseldorf.
Arab Anger Directed Against their Governments
In the Middle East, anger at the war and its potential to destabilize
the region was very near the surface as thousands of Arabs protested for a
third day in a row (see previous Frontlines report.)
With live footage of explosions and burning buildings in Iraq beamed
into most Arab homes, emotions were high over what many consider a sinister
plan to dominate the Arab world.
"Did you see all those bombs falling on TV? All the poor people? And
for what? America wants to subjugate the entire region for the sake of
Israel. They want to bring the Arabs to their knees," 50-year-old Egyptian
housewife Samia said.
In Egypt, the region's most populous country with almost 70 million
people, thousands of students staged anti-war rallies at universities amid
tight police security.
"Bush is the new Hitler of this century. He won't stop until he has
control of all Arab lands," one Omani student said.
While most Arabs have little time for Saddam Hussein, some 20,000
Palestinians in Gaza marched through the streets holding pictures of the
Iraqi president. "We are with you Saddam Hussein and the people of Iraq,"
they chanted.
Police in the northwest African country of Mauritania fired tear gas
to disperse throngs of anti-war protesters, estimated upwards of 30,000, who
poured onto the streets of the capital Nouakchott chanting "Bush is a
butcher" after Friday Muslim prayers at the city's mosques.
Demonstrators also hit the streets of Sudan, Jordan, Yemen, Syria and
other countries.
March on U.S. Embassies
In Lisbon, three former Portuguese prime ministers attended the start
of an anti-war demonstration that police estimated initially in 50,000.
In Vienna, a city of 1.6 million, about 30,000 marched against the
war, past the U.S. and British embassies, police said. In Amsterdam, some
20,000 marched on the U.S. consulate.
In northern Switzerland, a young Iraqi boy waving a sign saying "No
War" threatened to kill himself by jumping off a bridge on to the road
below, but was brought to safety with the help of an Arabic-speaking
passer-by, police said.
People in Nordic countries also came out against the war, with an
unprecedented demonstration of 20,000 in Finland, including families with
baby strollers. Some 30,000 hit the streets in militarily non-aligned
Sweden.
In Oslo, Norwegian police said they used tear gas to fight off
hundreds of anti-war demonstrators throwing rocks and eggs outside the U.S.
embassy. One injured officer went to hospital.
In traditionally neutral Ireland, where debate has raged over the U.S.
military's use of Shannon airport, some 30,000 joined a march through the
capital Dublin, organizers estimated.
Muslims In Asia Condemn U.S.
Earlier, Muslims across Asia staged peaceful anti-war rallies, voicing
anger against the United States.
About 4,000 protesters rallied outside the heavily fortified U.S.
embassy in Indonesia's capital Jakarta, shouting anti-U.S. slogans before
marching to the U.N. office a few blocks away.
In neighboring Malaysia, about 12,000 people shouted "Destroy America"
as they took part in a "peace run" in eastern Kelantan state. In Bangladesh,
protesters burned American flags and called a half-day general strike in the
capital Dhaka. There were no reports of violence.
Several tens of thousand people also protested in New Zealand and
Australia, which has deployed around 2,000 troops to the Gulf.
More than 15,000 Muslims rallied in the eastern Indian city of
Calcutta, and nearly 5,000 men and women marched to the U.S. embassy in New
Delhi. Some carried bottles they said contained blood and gasoline,
shouting: "Take this, this is what you want, and stop attacking Iraq."
In South Korea, some 3,000 gathered in Seoul to protest against the
war and their government's decision to send up to 700 non-combat troops to
assist it.
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