WORLD
CAPITALS, March 19, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) –
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in several world
capital on Saturday, march 19, to protest the occupation of Iraq on
the eve of the second anniversary of the US-led invasion of the
oil-rich Arab country.
Some
150,000 people marched through central London banging drums, waving
banners and posters denouncing the Iraq invasion and Washington’s
so-called war on terror, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“This
will be one of our biggest demonstrations,” said Lindsay German,
convener of Saturday's march and member of the Stop The War Coalition.
“It
expresses the very strong opposition to the war in Iraq and
occupation,” she stressed.
Pictures
of US President George W. Bush under the title “World's Number One
Terrorist” and banners saying “No War in Iran” mingled with
others warning British Prime Minister Tony Blair that people would not
vote for him in the May general election over his support for the Iraq
invasion.
Protestors
placed a coffin in front of the US embassy along the way with
“100,000 dead” written on it.
As
the coffin was laid down, the crowd chanted: “George Bush ... Uncle
Sam. Iraq will be your Vietnam.”
Reg
Keys, a 62-year-old from North Wales who lost his son Thomas in the
Iraq war, lambasted the government’s lies.
“It
is something that you will never get over and the only thing one can
do is try and expose the deceit and betrayal. I stand here a betrayed
man by my government who lied to me about the need to send my son to
war,” he said.
The
US has some 150,000 troops in Iraq, the biggest contingent in the
country, while Britain has the second largest with 8,600.
In
March 2003, and acting without a UN mandate, US-led forces invaded
oil-rich Iraq under the pretext of imminent threat posed by the
country’s alleged weapons of mass destruction.
A
recent report by top US weapons inspector in Iraq, Charles Duelfer,
concluded that Iraq had no WMD, raising concerns the invasion was
based on false pretexts.
Duelfer’s
predecessor, David Kay, had resigned over failure to
find any such weapons and said he had come to the conclusion that Iraq
had no stockpiles of banned weapons before the invasion.
“War
on Terror”
Campaigners
with loudspeakers called on people to rally in protest against the war
on terror and also urged them to gather again in Scotland in July when
Blair is due to host a Group of Eight meeting of industrialized
countries as president of the G8.
“I
want to stop the war, I am from China and we are probably next on
(Bush's) list after Syria and Iran,” said Laurence Wong, 48, a
teacher living in London who was calling on people to sign a petition
to stop any attack on Iran and Syria.
“Today's
demonstration is going to be a surprise for the government and for the
national newspapers because they thought we had forgotten our anger at
the war but we most definitely have not,” he said.
“I
want to stop the war on terror and this can only be done through a
mass movement of people from across the world,” said Moira Nolan,
35, another member of the Stop The War Coalition.
People
poured into the capital from across the country, including 29-year-old
human rights author Susanna Akono who traveled in a coach from Kent.
“The
war on terror is wrong because it is not going to end terrorism when
you have people such as Iyad Allawi (Iraq's outgoing prime minister)
being put in power,” she said, with an anti-war poster in her hand.
Akono,
who is from Cambodia and is married to a British man, plans to go on a
hunger strike from April 14 in protest against the continuing war on
terror.
“I
want to do everything I can to make sure my child has a secure
future,” said the pregnant activist.
Rowdy
Reception
 |
|
Japanese protesters holds pictures showing Iraqi victims during a rally in Tokyo. (Reuters)
|
In
Tokyo, more than 4,500 people gave visiting US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice a rowdy reception, reported Reuters.
“The
Self-Defense Force (Japan's military) should withdraw from Iraq
immediately... and the occupation of Iraq should be stopped,” said
Ken Takada, a member of civic group World Peace Now.
One
protester wore a mask of Bush and held a placard with a map of Iraq in
the colors of the US flag.
Another
held a picture of what appeared to be Iraqi children in front of a
destroyed building.
Japanese
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's decision to send about 550 troops
on a non-combat mission to the southern Iraqi city of Samawa has
trigger a public uproar.
Grieving
Mother
Similarly,
thousands of demonstrators marched in the Greek capital against the
US-led invasion-turned-occupation of Iraq, reported AFP.
Organized
by the General Confederation of Workers (GSEE), the Federation of
Greek Civil Servants (ADEDY) and the Athens Labour Centre (EKA), the
protest attracted some 5,000 workers, students and leftists, an
organizer told AFP.
Gathering
at Athens' central Syntagma Square, the demonstrators were addressed
by Sue Niederer, the mother of an American soldier killed in Iraq.
Niederer
called for the withdrawal of all US-led troops from the violence-torn
country.
The
demonstrators marched on the American embassy, chanting slogans
against Bush, Blair and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
“Bush,
the number one terrorist,” read a leaflet passed out to marchers.
“Hands
off Syria and Iran,” read another.
Several
Greenpeace activists participated in the protest, leaving a mock
tableau of dead body outlines on the asphalt facing the American
embassy gate.
Angry
Turks
 |
|
Anti-war protesters shout slogans as they hold up banners during a demonstration in Istanbul. (Reuters)
|
Several
hundred people took to the streets in Turkish cities to mark the Iraq
invasion anniversary.
“United
States, leave Iraq,” a banner read in Istanbul as protesters shouted
anti-US slogans under the watchful eyes of a massive police force.
In
the capital Ankara, protestors, stopped from getting close to the US
embassy, shouted: “Stop the occupation of Iraq; Iraq to the
Iraqis”.
The
protests were organized by political parties and trade unions.
Turkey,
a key Washington’s alley, turned down several American requests for
American forces to be able to attack Iraq from its territory.
Pro-Iraq,
Palestine
Up
to 1,000 demonstrators protested in Stockholm against the occupation
of Iraq.
“US
out of Iraq,” was the rallying call as protesters marched from
downtown Stockholm to the American embassy, east of the city center.
Organized
by Network against War, the protest started in the early afternoon
with speeches by parliamentarians from the Left Party, the Green Party
and Social Democrats.
They
all spoke out against the Bush administration and also their own
government.
“Sweden,
with its need to export arms, keeps quiet and collaborates,” Green
Party deputy Lotta Hedstroem told her mostly young audience in clear
but frosty weather,
The
policies of Washington and its allies in other parts of the world also
came in for criticism, as demonstrators brandished banners with “US
hands off Venezuela”, “Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq?”, and
“Israel out of Palestine”.
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