Posted on 20-1-2003
Hundreds
Of Thousands March Against War
Reuters
Hundreds of thousands of Americans opposed to waging war in
Iraq rallied
on Saturday in several cities demanding the White House back
down and give
U.N. weapons inspectors a chance.
Thousands marched on Washington and San Francisco and at smaller
protests
in Chicago and Tampa, Florida, in what organizers said was the
largest
showing of U.S. anti-war sentiment since President Bush started
making his
case for attacking Baghdad last year. In San Francisco, a group
of nude
women demanded that the Bush Administration restrain what they
called its
``naked aggression'' toward Iraq. In Washington, one placard
read ``Regime
Change Starts At Home.'' ``The path this administration is on
is wrong and
we object. It is an immoral war they are planning and we must
not be
silenced,'' said U.S. actress Jessica Lange, addressing a huge
crowd on
the national Mall in the center of Washington. ``All this talk
of war, all
this rhetoric has been an excellent cover, an excellent camouflage,
to
turn back the clock on civil rights, on woman's rights, on social
justice
and on environmental policies,'' she said.
``It's really important for us to show Europe and the rest of
the world
that we oppose this so they have the courage to say 'No,'''
said May
Paddock, 60, of Copake, New York. Protesters said the recent
deployment of
U.S. troops to the Gulf, and widespread speculation that a Jan.
27 report
by U.N. arms inspectors could serve as a trigger for war, had
lit a fire
under the American peace movement. Tens of thousands of demonstrators
in
Europe, the Middle East and Asia also denounced U.S. war plans,
where they
beat drums, raised home-made placards and chanted slogans even
as U.S.
troops streamed to the Gulf and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
vowed to
repel the invaders.
'NO BLOOD FOR OIL'
In Washington, protesters pleaded for the White House to let
inspections
run their course and said containment of Saddam is otherwise
working. Some
held homemade placards reading ``No Blood for Oil'' and ``Would
Jesus Bomb
them?,'' waving them against the clear blue skies. ``Bush is
counting on
the fact that the American people have been lulled into complacency
by
prosperity,'' said Kevin Lynch, one of 180 people from the Catholic
Church
of St. Joan of Arc in Minneapolis. ``He thinks middle-aged white
guys like
me are his bedrock supporters, and we're not.'' Protesters later
marched
to a downtown Navy base to demand the right to inspect U.S.
weapons of
mass destruction. Rally organizers claimed attendance of up
to 500,000 but
there were no official figures, with the police having adopted
a policy of
not estimating the size of Washington rallies.
In San Francisco a patchwork of environmentalists, labor activists,
Hollywood celebrities, veterans and self-described anarchists
gathered to
oppose an attack on Iraq. One placard read ``If War is inevitable
...
Start Drafting SUV Drivers Now,'' a reference to gas-guzzling
sport
utility vehicles and the opinion of many protesters the conflict
is over
Iraq's oil resources. Organizers estimated a turnout of up to
50,000
people, though that number could not be independently verified.
Though U.S. opinion polls have shown broad support for ousting
Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein, a Newsweek survey released on Saturday
found 60
percent of Americans want to take more time to explore nonmilitary
solutions. A TIME/CNN poll also found 49 percent of respondents
thought
Bush was doing a good job handling the Iraq situation, while
44 percent
thought he was doing a poor job. On Thursday, United Nations
weapons
inspectors found empty rocket warheads designed to carry chemical
warfare
agents, a discovery the White House called ``troubling and serious''
and
evidence Saddam was not disarming.
Angry protestors from Asia to the Americas staged mass rallies
to
demonstrate against war in Iraq, in a direct challenge to a
US-led assault
on Baghdad that many fear is drawing near. Demonstrations were
at full
throttle in Japan and the Middle East, and others were launched
in
European capitals from Moscow to Paris, ahead of peace protests
planned in
several US cities and in Latin American countries. Rallies in
Britain,
Germany, Ireland, Italy and Spain were expected to draw thousands
more to
protest US President George W. Bush's threats to go to war against
Baghdad
and Washington's ramped-up war preparations.
In London, where British Prime Minister Tony Blair has offered
Europe's
strongest support for Bush's stance on Iraq, hundreds gathered
near
Northwood, the permanent joint headquarters of the British armed
forces.
Candlelit vigils were to be held later in the day in Birmingham,
Nottingham and in London's Trafalgar Square. In Paris, an anti-war
rally
drew 6,000 people, according to police, as a range of left-wing
activists
demanded that Washington lay aside its war plans. Organizers
said 20,000
people marched through the French capital. "Obviously (Iraqi
President)
Saddam Hussein is a dictator. But if we attacked all non-democratic
regimes, there would be few peaceful countries left," said a
woman
attending her first protest. Another 10,000 people rallied in
France's
southern city of Marseille, according to organisers, crying
"Bush, Blair,
Chirac, we don't want your dirty war!" Police put protester
numbers at
5,000. Peace protests were planned in some 40 other French cities.
In Germany, two demonstrations -- in the northeastern port city
of Rostock
and in the southwestern university town of Tuebingen -- brought
thousands
out in support of peace.
In the Irish republic, around 1,500 activists gathered outside
the Shannon
airport to protest the possible refuelling there of Gulf-bound
US
warplanes in the event of war, police said.
Sweden, too, saw up to 5,000 demonstrators march through the
southwestern
city of Gothenburg, Swedish news agency TT reported.
Meanwhile, several hundred Russian Communists wielding banners
of Lenin
and Stalin rallied to revolutionary songs outside the US embassy.
Waving
crimson banners, the militants denounced the United States as
a
"terrorist" and "world policeman", comparing Bush to Hitler.
Austrians got an early start in Vienna late Friday with 1,000
mostly
students and school children burning a US flag and chanting
"Stop the
War".
In Japan, rally organizers from World Peace Now said up to 5,000
protestors had marched through Tokyo's glitzy shopping district
Ginza. "I
hope that president Bush, who is acting like a cowboy, will
recognize that
an era of western films is over," said Tomoharu Yamauchi, a
45-year-old
coffee shop owner.
Near the Pakistani capital, a human chain of more than 1,000
people --
including hundred schoolchildren -- wove through the streets
of Rawalpindi
in a collective call for peace. Children carried paper doves
symbolizing
the call for peace, while other held banners saying: "American
imperialism
is brutal and mad" and "US has the maximum weapons of mass destruction."
Massive rallies were staged throughout the Middle East, including
a march
through the Syrian capital that brought 15,000 people into the
streets.
Shouting "Down with the United States!" the Damascus marchers
carried
banners reading: "Iraq: a history and a civilization, not an
oil well."
In neighboring Lebanon, more than 8,000 protestors marched to
UN offices
in central Beirut in the largest anti-war rally held in support
of Iraq in
the past year. Visiting British left-wing MP George Galloway
took part in
the protest, which gathered MPs as well as several secular and
nationalist
Lebanese and Palestinian leaders. "From Ramallah to Baghdad,
one people
that will never die!" was among the more popular chants.
A protest in Cairo had a more modest turnout, with only 300
people
assembling in the central Sayeda Zeynad Square, as a heavy police
presence
prevented others from joining in.
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