PARIS,
September 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Thousands
demonstrated Saturday, September 27, against the U.S.-led occupation
of Iraq and the Israeli polices against the Palestinians in several
European countries.
The
largest rally took place in London, where the police counted 10,000
demonstrators, but the organizers' tally was ten times higher,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
London's
high-profile mayor and Labour dissident Ken Livingstone was among the
speakers. The march started from Hyde Park before a rally in Trafalgar
Square speakers.
The
organizers said they wanted to make Labour respond to their anger over
the situation in Iraq, ahead of the party's annual conference,
reported the BBC News Online.
Police
put at 20,000 the number of protester, although organizers estimated
up to 100,000 had attended the event.
"The
Hutton inquiry has proved, as we said all along, that the war in Iraq
was an utterly fraudulent war and people are very upset about
this," the BBC quoted as saying a spokesman for the Stop the War
coalition.
Many
of the protesters chanted anti-Bush slogans and carried banners with
messages like "Blair must go" and "U.K. troops out of
Iraq".
Among
the more unusual sights on the march was a replica tank made from
cardboard and painted orange, pushed by members of anti-capitalist
group Globalize Resistance, the British online broadcaster said.
A
demonstration on 15 February attracted a record-breaking turnout of
about one million protesters.
France…
In
Paris, dozens of French, Palestinian and Arab non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) demanded Israel and the U.S. pull out their
troops of the occupied Palestinian and Iraqi territories.
Left-wing
French organizations spearheaded thousands of demonstrators, who
unfolded anti-occupation banners and demanded that France intervene to
protect the Palestinian people by taking part in multi-international
separation troops.
"Down
with the (U.S.) occupation of Iraq…Peace and Justice to
Palestine," read the title of a statement circulated by the
so-called Revolutionary Communist League.
The
statement said that from Afghanistan to Iraq "the United States
is waging a barbaric colonial war that violates all human
rights."
It
said that the U.S. administration tried to mislead the world into
believing that it was the world's peace broker.
"But
as days went by, its real intentions have surfaced through its biased
policy towards the government of (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel)
Sharon," it added.
The
statement also lashed out at the construction of the separating wall,
which was also condemned by Israeli peace activists.
The
600km-long wall is also expected to cut occupied east Jerusalem off
from the rest of the West Bank.
It
will eventually snake some 900 kilometers (540 miles) along the West
Bank and leave even larger swathes of its territory on the Israeli
side and could cost up to $2.2 million a kilometer or a total of $1.8
billion, even though the Israeli economy is in dire straits.
In
Turkey…
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|
Turkish
protesters voice their support for Intifada
|
Thousands
of Turks took to the streets in two separate demonstrations on
Saturday to denounce the U.S.-led occupation of neighboring Iraq and
Israel's policies against the Palestinians, the Anatolia news agency
reported.
Nearly
3,000 people -- from trade unions and non-governmental organizations
-- turned up for the protest in Istanbul, which passed peacefully, the
agency said.
"Freedom
to Palestine, long live the global Intifada," chanted the
demonstrators.
In
the capital Ankara, meanwhile, members of trade unions, minor
left-wing parties, environmental groups and human rights organizations
gathered in the downtown Sihhiye square for a three-hour protest.
A
press statement from the organizing committee criticized the United
States for attacking Iraq without a valid reason and called on the
Turkish government to say no to a U.S. request to send soldiers to
Iraq.
"We
will not send soldiers to Iraq, we will not let our sovereignty be
trampled on, we will not become an accomplice to the occupation,"
said the statement, carried by Anatolia.
More
than 3,500 police were called on duty for the protest, which ended
without incident.
NATO
member Turkey has yet to decide on whether to contribute soldiers to a
stability force in Iraq, but the idea has attracted criticism from
both the public and parliament -- which has to approve the dispatch of
Turkish soldiers abroad.
In
South Korea…
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|
South
Korean protesters hold banners during anti-war and anti-U.S rally
at a park in Seoul
|
South
Koreans took to the streets here Saturday to urge the government to
reject a controversial U.S. request to send troops to Iraq and avoid
becoming an "accomplice in the invasion".
About
2,000 protestors marched some three kilometers (two miles) along the
street in downtown Jongro district, chanting slogans and carrying
banners.
"U.S.,
Leave Iraq," read one banner. "Don't make young Koreans
murderers," another said.
Washington
has requested an unspecified number of South Korean combat troops, but
sources here say the figure could be anywhere between 3,000 and
10,000.
South
Korea sent 675 non-combatants, including army engineers and medics, to
Iraq in May.
The
protestors said in a statement that the U.S.-led war on Iraq is a war
of invasion which is banned under the South Korean constitution.
"No
matter how the government may attempt to justify the dispatch of
troops to Iraq, (South Korea) would be unable to avoid being named as
an accomplice of the United States in the invasion into Iraq,"
the statement said.
It
accused the South Korean government of seeking to trade the dispatch
of combat troops to Iraq for a softer U.S. stance toward North Korea
in the stand-off over Pyongyang's nuclear drive.
"Sending
combat troops to a dirty war in expectation for some return would only
show the moral decay of the South Korean government," it said.
In
Lebanon…
Some
5,000 people marched in the streets of the Lebanese capital Beirut on
Saturday to express support for the Palestinians and to protest
against the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
The
procession, led by about 50 children from the dozen Palestinian
refugee camps in Lebanon, came to a halt outside the United Nations
building in Beirut, where large pictures of the Lebanese and Syrian
leaders were displayed, an AFP photographer said.
"Palestine
and Iraq are the conscience of the nation," read one placard,
while another vowed: "We choose armed struggle in the face of
defeat and imperialist Zionist terrorism."
