Even children jointed global anti-war rallies

WORLD CAPITALS, March 26 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – With anti-war demonstrations continuing for the seventh day in a row, violent clashes erupted Wednesday, March 26, between police and protesters during a student-led rally in Sydney , where police officers were pelted with a hail of golf balls and other “missiles”.

Three officers were injured and 14 youths were arrested during the clash, which police said had been provoked by a group of Middle Eastern protesters, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The demonstration, the latest in a wave of protests that have brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets of Australia 's major cities since the U.S.-led war on Iraq began last Thursday, brought lunchtime traffic to a standstill in the city.

Chairs, golf balls and other “missiles” were thrown at police as the protesters marched through the city to Prime Minister John Howard's Sydney office for a noisy demonstration.

Police said there had been deliberate attempts to taunt officers and provoke violence among about 2,000 school and university students, including primary school pupils as young as 10, who crammed into a city-centre square chanting anti-war slogans.

Many of those blamed for causing the riot were Arab youths wearing Palestinian-style headscarves.

"A large group of Middle Eastern males started to engage and incite the police in St Andrews Square and they started to pick up cafe furniture from the area and throw it at the police," police Commander Dick Adams claimed.

Hundreds of police formed a human barrier but protesters rushed the line, forcing the officers to retreat.

Protesters then began throwing chairs from a nearby cafe, as well as rocks, golf balls, bottles, eggs, firecrackers and marbles, police said.

A police spokesman said seven of the 14 youths who had been arrested would be charged with a variety of offences.

14 youths were arrested in anti-war demos in Australia

He said three officers had been struck on the head with “missiles” and had to be treated in hospital for minor injuries before returning to duty.

The protests were smaller than the mass demonstrations attended by up to half a million Australians during a weekend of global anti-war protests on February 15 and 16.

Another 1,500 rowdy students marched through central Melbourne Wednesday protesting the war, and sitting in front of police cars and officers, disrupting an otherwise peaceful march.

At one point, mounted police had to force their way through a small group of students staging a sit-in on the road. No arrests or injuries were reported.

Indonesians Urge Boycott Of U.S. Products

Protesters display placards in front of McDonald's as they launch a campaign to boycott the fast food chain and other U.S. multinational companies

Thousands of Indonesians protested in several cities Wednesday against the U.S. invasion of Iraq and called for a boycott of American products.

In the day's largest rally, about 3,000 people from various political parties rallied at Cilacap in Central Java , ElShinta radio reported.

Demonstrators urged the government to break relations with the United States and called for a "comprehensive boycott" of U.S. goods.

At Semarang in Central Java , more than 2,000 students of the Sultan Agung Islamic University took to the streets in a noisy rally and similarly called for a U.S.-goods boycott.

In Yogyakarta , also in Central Java , about 150 protesters amassed outside two Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants, the Detikcom online news service said.

They placed signs reading "Stop consuming U.S. products" and "Profits from U.S. products are killing people" on the windows of the restaurants.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government has denounced the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as an illegal act of aggression.

It wants the United Nations Security Council to hold an emergency meeting to try to grind the war to a cessation.

McDonald's Under Fire In South Korea

South Korean protesters planted a mock U.S. bomb between the Golden Arches of McDonald's

Meanwhile, South Korean anti-war demonstrators targeted symbols of U.S. economic and political power Wednesday, attacking the U.S. embassy and planting a mock U.S. bomb between the Golden Arches of a McDonald's.

Police hauled away about 30 demonstrators from outside the U.S. embassy and a dozen more from a downtown McDonald's where activists chanted "no to war" and scaled a 15 meter (45-foot) pillar with the Golden Arches on top.

"McDonald's is a symbol of the United States and our protest is against the illegal U.S. war on Iraq ," said Kim Chu-Nee, among 30 campaigners for the South Korean branch of the environmental group Friends of the Earth which organized the McDonald's protest.

A demonstrator wearing a face mask of U.S. President George W. Bush and clutching a plastic M-16 assault rifle planted a mock U.S. bomb carved from wood and painted black between the two arches.

The U.S. embassy has been the target of almost daily anti-U.S. protests since the outbreak of the U.S.-led war on Iraq .

Protesters from the left-wing student group Hanchongryon surged out of an underpass and dashed through a police blockade around the embassy to stage an anti-U.S. demonstration, police said.

The Internet news service Ohmynews said some 200 riot police using truncheons overpowered some of the protestors, including 10 who had chained themselves to the building and chanted anti-U.S. slogans.

Two students scaled the wall with a banner reading "Stop the war, No Bush" but they were immediately taken down by South Korean security guards, the report said.

Ohmynews pictures showed at least one protestor bleeding from his right eye.

Anti-war protests intensified after President Roh Moo-Hyun pledged support for the U.S. war effort last week by promising to send around 700 troops to Iraq for the post-war phase.

But South Korea 's parliament, fearing a public backlash, shelved a vote Tuesday on the issue.

Fearing Demos, U.S. Embassy In Bahrain Closed

The United States embassy in Manama , announced it would remain closed Wednesday in anticipation of three more days of anti-war demonstrations in Bahrain , headquarters of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.

"The embassy's American staff and dependants have been advised to avoid all but essential travel during the next three days and to avoid restaurants, malls and cinemas," a statement said.

"During periods of frequent demonstrations, American citizens should remain vigilant of their surroundings, avoid crowds and demonstrations," it said.

Bahrainis have staged repeated anti-war protests and clashed with police outside the embassy in Manama since the assault on Iraq began Thursday.

The U.S. embassy has since been closed.

A gas bottle placed in a dustbin set off an explosion Monday night near the Al-Jufair naval base, home to the Fifth Fleet, but there were no injuries or damage.

Most of the 5,000-odd Americans residing in Bahrain are military personnel with the Fifth Fleet.

U.S. military personnel have been stationed in Bahrain since Manama signed an agreement with Washington in the early 1970s granting the U.S. Navy facilities at the base.

Tunisians Fighting With Iraqis

Elsewhere in the Arab world, some 10,000 people Tuesday protested the U.S.-led war on Iraq in the largest such demonstration yet in the Tunisian capital, after members of the union that organized the event arrived in Baghdad to fight the invaders.

Carrying Iraqi flags and wearing T-shirts emblazoned with portraits of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and Che Guevara, a key leader of the 1959 Cuban revolution, the demonstrators marched for three kilometers through the centre of Tunis under a heavy police presence.

Calling for an end to "American hegemony" and "state terrorism," they burned U.S. and Israeli flags at the demonstration, organized by the powerful General Tunisian Workers Union (UGTT).

On Monday, March 23, UGTT members arrived in Baghdad to fight against "American-Zionist aggression, according to the Iraqi embassy in Tunis .

Tunisian union sources confirmed the departure of a delegation of "volunteers" to Baghdad , but did not say how many had left.