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World Protests Mark Iraq Invasion Anniversary
bhaloo
03/20/05 at 08:41:13
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World Protests Mark Iraq Invasion Anniversary

http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-03/19/article07.shtml

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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