Iraqi children celebrated the New Year by protesting U.S. aggression

Additional reporting By Aws Al-Sharqi, IOL Iraq correspondent

BAGHDAD, January 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Five thousands Iraqi children marked the New Year’s eve in Baghdad on Tuesday, December 31, by protesting against U.S. threats of military attack against their country.

The children, aged between five and 10 years, waved banners reading: "No to the embargo! Yes to peace!" and: "So where is conscience and humanity?" in Arabic, and: "Down, Down USA!" in English.

The crowd urged the United Nations to guarantee the rights of children in the event of a U.S. attack, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

The protest, which climaxed outside the Baghdad headquarters of the UN Development Program (UNDP), also saw the young demonstrators release white doves.

A petition demanding to lift the sanctions on Iraq and stop the threat of aggression was handed to the UNDP representative by Raghda, a leading Syrian actress and a handicapped Iraqi child on behalf of the demonstrators.

“I came to participate in the demonstration hoping that the world and (U.S. President George) Bush will hear my voice and stop destroying and killing innocent Iraqi children,” an Iraqi child told IslamOnline.

A petition demanding to lift the sanctions on Iraq and stop the threat of aggression was handed to the UNDP representative by a prominent Syrian actress and a handicapped Iraqi child

Sarmad Abdel Wahed said he left his brother, who has been suffering form cancer for years, at home because he wanted to know why (UN Secretary-General) Kofi Annan is silent.

“Why is Kofi Annan silent about Bush’s crimes. I consider him a collaborator in murdering Iraqi children because he is letting it happen,” he added.

“Two of my relatives died after suffering from many diseases without being able to find the appropriate medicines because of the sanctions,” another Iraqi child said.

“My father told me that the UN is refusing to provide Iraq with food and medicine causing thousands of deaths among Iraqis,” Sanan Saber Ebeid said.

Nine-year-old girl, Asmaa Garallah, said that she came to the demonstration to tell the Americans: “We hate you because you are the enemy of children and you are the cause of death of innocent people in Iraq, Palestine and everywhere”.

“What did the Iraqi children do to be punished by the U.S. with hunger and illness. Do they leave their children without milk, food, and toys,” said Hannan Abdel Altif Qassem.

“Where are the Arabs and Muslims, why the Arab governments are silent while people are killed on a daily basis,” she asked.

Official statistics put at 1.6 million the number of Iraqis who have died as a result of the 11-year-old U.S.-led sanctions.

"We don't want war," U.S. religious leaders

Elsewhere in Baghdad, a 13-member group of U.S. religious leaders led by the National Council of Churches (NCC) visited a school in the Al-Kahira district, protests against the U.S. plans to attack Iraq. They delivering a primary class messages and drawings by children in the United States and other countries.

"No war", "War is not good", "We don't want war", read the messages in English and French alongside crude drawings of bombs, houses on fire and hands joined together in a gesture of peace, AFP said.

One eight-year-old schoolboy approached the group, which launched a four-day humanitarian mission in Baghdad on Monday, December 30, to say he had a message for it to relay to U.S. President George W. Bush: "Why do you want to occupy Iraq? We are a peaceful people."

The United States is preparing a massive military buildup in the Gulf and has threatened to attack Iraq under the pretext that Baghdad has nuclear weapons.

Baghdad denies U.S. charges that it is still developing weapons of mass destruction and the UN inspectors have not found any proof supporting the U.S. allegations after more than a month searching in Iraq.