NYT report from NYC rally: Children from Public School 3 brought a 15-foot balloon of the earth. It was punctured going under a bridge, but they patched it with duct tape. "We're trying to fix the world," 10-year-old Sonia Santzoord deadpanned.
----------------- BBC News Sunday, 16 February, 2003, 01:40 GMT Millions join global anti-war protests In New York a rally was held near the UN headquarters Millions of people worldwide are marching in demonstrations against a possible US-led war against Iraq. "If Mr Blair will hear his people he can alter the direction of the rush to war." -- Jesse Jackson Hundreds of peace rallies are taking place in up to 60 countries this weekend. The demonstration in London was the capital's biggest in peacetime. The organisers put the turnout at nearly two million, while police said it was more than 750,000. Protests are now getting under way in the United States, with the main rally taking place outside the UN headquarters in New York. Hundreds of thousands of anti-war protesters thronged the streets of Paris, Rome, and Berlin. In Barcelona, Spain police estimated that up to 1.3 million people marched in support of peace, with around 200,000 marching in Seville and more than 600,000 in Madrid, the Associated Press news agency reported. Sporadic violence - blamed by police on anarchists - was reported in Athens, Greece, but so far the demonstrations have been peaceful. The demonstrations come a day after UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix issued a largely positive assessment of the UN's disarmament process in Iraq. 'War about oil' Addressing a massive crowd in Hyde Park, London mayor Ken Livingstone said "this is all Britain standing together regardless of age, race or sex". "This war is solely about oil. (US President) George Bush has never given a damn about human rights," he said. It was a wonderful feeling to be with over 150,000 people all opposed to our government's stance on the war Veteran US civil rights activist Jesse Jackson told the Hyde Park rally that "it is not too late to stop this war". The protesters marched under a sea of multi-coloured banners and slogans such as "No War On Iraq" and "Make Tea, Not War". UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has suffered a fall in popularity following his staunch support of US plans to launch military action against Saddam Hussein. In New York, celebrities and activists such as Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and black activist Angela Davis attended a peace rally near the United Nations headquarters. Mr Tutu, addressing an estimated crowd of at least 100,000 people, said that those who wished to wage war on Iraq "must know it would be an immoral war". Some families of the victims of the attack on the World Trade Center also attended the rally. Several placards carried the phrase "Thank You France and Germany", a reference to the European countries' opposition to war, French news agency AFP reported. Middle East anger Demonstrations have also been held in cities across the Middle East, including Israel, and in East Asia. In a rare sign of unity, 3,000 Jews and Arabs marched together in Tel Aviv. Officials reported at least one million people marched in the streets of Baghdad, while in the Syrian capital of Damascus more than 200,000 people marched, with one banner carrying the slogan "Axis of Evil: America, Britain, Israel". Some of the first protests on Saturday were seen in New Zealand, as environmental pressure group Greenpeace flew a plane over Auckland harbour trailing a banner reading "No War, Peace Now". About 5,000 marched through Auckland and a similar number in the capital Wellington. Rallies were held in several cities in Australia, where a protest in Melbourne on Friday drew a crowd estimated by organisers at 150,000 - the largest there since anti-Vietnam War marches 30 years ago. In Seoul - capital of South Korea, one of the staunchest US allies in Asia - hundreds of demonstrators rallied, shouting chants such as "Bush, Terrorist!" and carrying banners urging "Drop Bush, not bombs". Moved on In Malaysia - a predominantly Muslim state - hundreds demonstrated outside the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur. despite a police ban on the demonstration. Officers eventually persuaded the crowd to move on peacefully while colleagues in riot gear stood by. The Malaysian Government has been a strong critic of US policy towards Iraq. However its opponents claim that it wants to channel support for the anti-war movement into a government backed Malaysians for Peace campaign. The organisers of Malaysians for Peace claim to have gathered more than one million signatures against war and are planning a large rally next Saturday to coincide with the Non Aligned Movement summit which will bring dozens of world leaders to Kuala Lumpur. In Singapore, where public demonstrations are not permitted, two women were moved on by police after a brief protest against war in Iraq outside the US embassy. In Thailand about 2,000 people - mostly Muslims - rallied in front of the US and UK embassies in the capital on Saturday. ---------------- The Independent (UK) February 16, 2003 Groundswell of dissent encircles the globe From Auckland to Amsterdam, from Rio to Rome, millions of citizens poured on to the streets to make their voices heard By David Randall in London, Peter Popham in Rome and Ruth Elkins in Berlin Millions of people around the world poured on to the streets of their towns and cities yesterday to protest against the prospect of a US-led war on Iraq. The worldwide tidal wave of protest began in New Zealand and rolled around the globe, gathering, as it went, momentum, enthusiasm and a sense of being part of a universal movement. The largest turnout was in Rome, where organisers claimed an attendance of three million. By the end of the weekend, demonstrations will have been held in more than 600 places from Auckland to Iceland, and San Francisco to South Korea. In Auckland, marchers cheered as a plane flew overhead trailing a giant banner which read: "No War, Peace Now". In Australia, where 150,000 had demonstrated in Melbourne the day before, 16,000 activists marched in Canberra, 10,000 in Perth, and 15,000 in Newcastle, north of Sydney. There were further marches in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India, East Timor, Pakistan, Taipei, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Singapore, South Korea and Japan. Some of those involved were experienced veterans of protest, but many were taking their first uncertain steps on a protest march. Mariko Aoyama, who described herself as a Tokyo housewife, said: "What the United States is doing now is wrong. We are on the brink of World War Three." The only trouble was in Athens, where several hundred anarchist protesters broke away from the tens of thousands on the main rally, smashed windows, threw a gasoline bomb at a news office and overturned a car. Riot police cordoned off the city's US embassy. In South Africa, thousands marched in Cape Town and Johannesburg, where Ivan Abrahams, a Methodist minister, said: "We are saying to Bush, you are not the saviour of the world, and we will not bow down to you." In the Middle East the protests were more muted, but even so, in Damascus 200,000 marched through the streets. In Baghdad, the crowds were strongly encouraged by the extensive military presence around the demonstration. "At times the fervour was almost messianic: as if in a kind of ritualistic tribal worship," Independent on Sunday reporter James McGowan observed. Europe's demonstrations began in sub-zero temperatures in Russia and in Kiev in the Ukraine, and spread, via Berlin, to dozens of cities across the continent, including Amsterdam, Budapest, Lyon, Marseilles, Sofia, Brussels, Stuttgart, Toulouse, Thessaloniki, Warsaw, Bern, Paris and Copenhagen. In Mostar, Bosnia, Muslims and Croats united for an anti-war protest, the first such cross-community action in seven years in a place where ethnic divisions still remain strong. And in Cyprus, Turks and Greeks marched together, briefly blocking a runway at a British airbase. In Tel Aviv, too, usual conflicts were forgotten as Israelis and Palestinians marched side by side against a war. In Rome, a vast, dazzlingly colourful tide of people estimated by the organisers to number three million swamped the city yesterday afternoon, practically encircling the ancient heart and uniting monks and nuns, communists and anarchists and hundreds of thousands of ordinary Italians in protest against the policies of Bush and Blair. "Stop the war" read a huge banner on the stage at march's conclusion on Piazza San Giovanni above a blow- up of Picasso's Guernica. Air-raid sirens wailed above Rome's streets in a reminder of the war fears agitating this country which today has a Muslim population approaching one million. One reason for the massive numbers was the strong support given by the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, to the American line. But the Vatican's outspoken opposition to the war has sent tremors through Berlusconi's Forza Italia party. In Berlin, the biggest peace demonstration seen by Germany for 20 years brought much of the capital to a standstill. More than 350,000 people - more than three times as many as organisers had expected - took part in an event which culminated in a mass rally at Berlin's victory column, near the Brandenburg Gate. In France up to 400,000 people, many carrying posters denouncing US President Bush as a "warmonger" and chanting anti-American slogans, marched through Paris and 50 other cities. Gerald Lenoir, 41, of Berkley, California, said he came to Paris, where 100,000 marched, specifically to demonstrate alongside the French. "I am here to protest my government's aggression against Iraq," he said. "Iraq does not pose a security threat to the States and there are no links with al-Qa'ida." As night fell in London, no fewer than 15 marches were underway in Brazil, nearly a million were demonstrating in Madrid, and an expected 100,000-plus were beginning to assemble in New York. Also in Politics Groundswell of dissent encircles the globe War spells disaster for Iraqis, UN warns US offers Turkey billions to aid invasion On a day of high drama, a quiet Swede may just have turned back the tide of war Vintage performance from an international bureaucrat.
