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Demonstrators in Brussels
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BRUSSELS,
November 10 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Belgian police arrested
29 youths as windows were smashed during a protest in Brussels Sunday,
November 10, by 1,500 people against a U.S.-led war on Iraq.
Two
shop windows were broken during the demonstration, kept well back from
its target of the U.S. Embassy building, a police spokesman told Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
He
declined to give a reason for the 29 detentions but said there were no
clashes between the protestors and police officers.
The
march by left-wing and pro-Palestinian campaigners condemned any
military campaign against Iraq. The activists also demanded an end to
international sanctions against Iraq and the creation of a Palestinian
state.
Organizers
quoted by the Belga news agency put the number of demonstrators at
5,000. The police spokesman said they dispersed without further
incidents.
The
protest came after the United Nations Security Council on Friday passed
a new U.S.-drafted resolution imposing sweeping new arms inspection on
Baghdad.
And
in Florence, Italy, a huge gathering of opponents of globalization and
war against Iraq ended in Florence Sunday with organizers saying that
the disparate groups within the movement were gradually forging a common
identity.
Organizers
said the four-day meeting of the European Social Forum in the Tuscan
city, which attracted several hundred thousand people, was clear
evidence of the desire all over the continent for a "fairer"
Europe.
"Coalitions
are starting to be built using a common language," said Bernard
Cassen, head of the French branch of ATTAC, an anti-globalization body
bringing together labor unions, associations, MPs, academics and
ordinary citizens.
The
European Social Forum, the first organized gathering of the
anti-globalization movement on the continent, is seen to have provided a
coherent structure for the multifarious network of associations,
non-governmental organizations and trades unions.
"You
can sense a phenomenon that is growing and is strong, even though we
can't yet talk about convergence between the social movement and the
unions or political parties on the left," he added.
"We
know they feel they have a duty to be here and can't sit on the fence
for any longer but we want to push each of them to clarify their
positions," Cassen added.
For
his part, Fausto Bertinotti, Secretary-General of the Communist
Refoundation Party of Italy (PRC), said "the construction of an
alternative left is now on the agenda".
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Plainclothes police arrest a demonstrator during an anti-war demonstration in Brussels
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Monique
Migneau, a member of the French FSU teaching union, said that the
unexpected success of the forum "showed that in Europe there is a
need for this anti-globalization movement in order to build
rights".
Lawyer
Fabio Marcelli, a member of Italy's "democratic magistrates'
movement", spoke for many when he said "the first nucleus of
the European people was created in Florence".
For
the forum organizers, Saturday's peaceful rally against a war in Iraq,
which was attended by hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, was seen
as the perfect riposte to those who feared the event would be marred by
violence.
Instead
of the 100,000 to 200,000 people expected to turn out for the march, the
highlight of the gathering, between 400,000 and one million
demonstrators joined the cheerful protest.
This
figure is considerably higher than the estimated 300,000 people who
turned up for an anti-globalization demonstration in the Italian city of
Genoa in July 2001, at which one Italian man was killed by police in
violent clashes with participants.
Attendance
at the various debates going on around Florence during the forum also
surpassed the organizers' expectations, with around 50,000 people
turning up to listen to the discussions instead of the predicted 20,000.
The
threat of war with Iraq permeated the debates, with Saturday's march hot
on the heels of a new UN resolution calling on Baghdad to disarm or face
"serious consequences".
After
the demonstration, militants launched an "appeal against war in
Iraq", scheduling a number of protests in Europe for mid-December
and mid-January and a "European Day" on February 15.
In
Marseille, France, some 300 people demonstrated in the southern French
city Saturday, to protest against a possible war in Iraq.
The
march, under the banner "Prevent war, Cultivate peace", took
place one day after the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a new
resolution calling on Iraq to disarm.
The
protestors were seen holding banners supporting disarmament but also
called for France to stay out of any war in Iraq.
The
Movement for Peace, which organized the demonstration, also distributed
leaflets criticizing plans by the French government to increase defense
spending.
