Thousands
of students streamed out of classrooms across Italy Thursday as the
country's main unions prepared a day of protest against the invasion
of Iraq.
Police
in the northern city of Turin said 20,000 students had taken to the
streets for an anti-war rally in the city center.
Pacifists
angry at the outbreak of war also marched through the business capital
Milan.
The
organizers said around 100,000 people were due to join the march, but
police put the figure early Thursday at 15,000.
American
students from the U.S. Johns Hopkins University in Bologna joined a
march numbering more than 5,000 people through the streets of the
city.
In
Rome, more than 1,000 students gathered near the U.S. embassy in
fashionable Via Veneto to chant "No to War, No to Bombs".
Police
prevented the students from approaching the heavily guarded embassy.
Many
of the students waved the rainbow colored peace flag which has become
a common sight in a country firmly opposed to a U.S.-led military
strike.
In
the southern city of Naples, around 400 students were holding a sit-in
outside the headquarters of NATO's Southern Command in the Bengali
quarter.
Meanwhile,
Italy's three main trade unions called for a two-hour general strike,
due to begin at 1400 GMT, in protest at the war.
Switzerland
Joins World Anger
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Protesting
war, Swiss students burn a U.S. flag in Zurich
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Several
thousand Swiss people, mainly students and schoolchildren, took to the
streets on Thursday to protest against the war.
More
than 5,000 held a protest in Geneva, some 3,000 in the town of
Neuchatel, and there were reports of demonstrations in other cities
including the capital Bern, Zurich and Basel.
Several
demonstrators were seen trying to climb over a gate into the World
Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva.
Carrying
banners marked "No war for petrol," the protestors in the
western Swiss city were later seen heading towards the European
headquarters of the United Nations.
Many
of the protestors in Switzerland were carrying the rainbow-colored
flag which has become a symbol for peace in Europe.
Protests
were expected to be held in about 30 towns and cities nationwide
during the day, according to the Swiss news agency ATS.
An
opinion poll published in Swiss media last month indicated that about
88 percent of people in neutral Switzerland opposed a war on Iraq.
Thousands
of Muslims Protest In Kashmir
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Schoolboys
of the Jammu Kashmir Students Union demonstrate against Iraq war
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Thousands
of Muslims in Kashmir, including lawmakers who brought the legislature
to a halt, Thursday railed against the United States for starting a
war on Iraq.
Nearly
5,000 Muslims took to the streets in Magam town, 27 kilometers west of
the summer capital Srinagar, chanting "death to Bush" and
"Iraqi people we are with you."
The
Muslims came out on the streets when news spread that the U.S. had
begun pounding Iraq with missiles.
The
protestors, carrying banners pledging solidarity with the Iraqi
people, beat and kicked an effigy of Bush before torching it along
with an American flag, witnesses said.
In
the winter capital Jammu, the legislative assembly of the region
adjourned in uproar Thursday as lawmakers loudly protested the start
of the Iraq war and castigated Bush.
"Down
with George Bush. Shame on Bush," the lawmakers yelled while
demanding the House adopt a resolution condemning the war.
Intervening
in the chaos, Law and Finance Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beig said:
"It is a tragedy and a sad day for all of us."
Hundreds
Protest In New Zealand
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Anti-war
demonstrator March Brammer holds a sign during a candlelight
vigil
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Several
hundred protesters took to the streets of New Zealand's main cities
Thursday to voice their anger against the war on Iraq.
In
Auckland, about 150 people staged a protest outside the U.S.
consulate, which was followed by a march to the British and Australian
High Commissions, witnesses said .
The
Auckland protest group Global Peace and Justice diverted rush hour
traffic and held up banners urging peace and yelled out chants like
"no blood for oil" and "shame, shame, shame".
About
500 people marched through central Wellington to the U.S. embassy to
protest against the start of U.S.-led military aggression, witnesses
said.
In
Christchurch, around 300 protesters held hands and prayed in front of
Christchurch Cathedral.
"The
only positive thing you can say about it is that it may bring people
closer to realizing that war and violence is not the way,"
protester Heather Thrasher said.
In
Dunedin, about 150 people maintained a night vigil in the city center.
"We
feel quite angry that we haven't been listened to. Angry that the
democracy the United States is supposedly trying to bring to the world
counts for nothing," rally organizer Fiona Bowker said.
Russians
Rally Outside U.S. Embassy
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Russian
protesters set Bush’s picture afire
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Two
hundred Russian communists and ultra-nationalists demonstrated outside
the U.S. embassy in Moscow Thursday to protest at "barbaric"
U.S.-led military aggression on Iraq.
Six
hundred police were at hand as the protestors chanted "Yankee go
home" or "No to war" in a rally called after Washington
triggered an invasion of Iraq in a brazen violation of the
international legitimacy.
Many
carried red flags and banners with slogans such as "Bush, hands
off Iraq" or, referring to the Russian and U.S. presidents,
"Putin, stop bowing to Bush".
The
leader of the Communist Party's Moscow branch Alexander Kuvayev
denounced "the United States' barbaric action," warning that
Iraq would be "the first link in the chain of a new world
carve-up."
"Today
Iraq, tomorrow Syria, then Iran, then Russia," Kuvayev told the
crowd, calling for Russia to "leave the sanctions regime against
Iraq and deliver them weapons, (and) boycott American products."
Kuvayev
further called on the Russian parliament to "boycott
contacts" with their U.S., British and Spanish counterparts,
referring to the three countries whose leaders met in the Azores last
Sunday to declare war.
Mauritanians
In Protest March
Several
hundred people in Mauritania, including parliamentarians, took to the
streets of the capital Thursday in a march against the U.S. war on
Iraq.
A
journalist at the protest said Mauritanian parliamentary speaker
Rachid Ould Saleh led the marchers as they set off from Nouakchott's
main marketplace.
Carrying
banners denouncing the U.S.-led war, launched in the early hours of
the day, the demonstrators headed towards the presidency via
Nouakchott's university.
The
march went off without incident and the protesters dispersed
peacefully outside the president's office.
Opposition
party, the Popular Front (FP), and a grouping opposed to Mauritania
having full diplomatic ties with Israel held an anti-war rally
Wednesday night, March 19, in Nouakchott.
Denouncing
the "presumptuousness" and "messianic regime" of
the United States, the organizers chanted to some 1,000 people who had
turned out for the rally: "We are all Iraqis, we are all
Palestinians, Bush will discover he was wrong."
In
Indonesia
about 1,000 protestors gathered outside the heavily guarded U.S.
embassy in Jakarta, carrying signs reading, "Bush, go to
hell" and "Terrorism No, Justice Yes."
In
Australia, thousands took to the streets just hours after the first
air strikes against Iraqi targets, with more than 10,000 protesting in
central Sydney and 20,000 in the country's second city Melbourne.
In
Egypt, Lebanon, the Philippines and South Korea demonstrators also
came in droves to protest the Anglo-American war of aggression on the
Iraqi people.
