...five million people across the country, according to union estimates, staged a 15-minute work stoppage... but Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar... compared those who oppose military action to those who sat back and watched while Hitler invaded neighbouring countries... however... opinion polls indicate that more than 80 per cent of Spaniards (oppose the war)...
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Mar. 14, 2003. 12:33 PM
Vast protests in Spain oppose war
Aznar stands firm in backing U.S. on Iraq as millions stage demonstrations
MADRID (AP) - Millions of workers staged anti-war protests today in Spain, but Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar stood firmly by the United States' plans to attack Iraq.
"Not acting to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction is neither politically nor morally acceptable," Aznar told a meeting of members of his Popular Party. He reiterated charges that Iraq has failed to disarm since the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
Aznar compared those who oppose military action to those who sat back and watched while Hitler invaded neighbouring countries or Yugoslav leaders carried out ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.
"The Balkans appeared on TV but there are human rights abuses in Iraq," Aznar said. "Does that make it right to act in former but not in latter? I don't think so."
After "so many years of tyranny, murders and torture," Aznar said he hoped "the Iraqi people will see freedom soon and Spaniards can proudly say in that moment that we were capable of assuming serenely and calmly our responsibility."
Aznar made no mention of the emergency summit he is to hold with U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday on Portugal's Azores Islands.
But the national news agency Efe quoted government officials as saying the three would discuss ways of mustering international support for their stance rather than plans to attack Iraq.
The Portuguese defence ministry said the summit will be held at the Lajes Field air base on Terceira island. Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Durao Barroso will also attend the summit as host, his office said.
Aznar and Blair are the two most fervent supporters of the hardline U.S. stance on Iraq. Portugal also backs the United States.
Spain's opposition parties, however, oppose a war, and opinion polls indicate that more than 80 per cent of Spaniards feel the same way.
Aznar's party meeting in a downtown Madrid hotel came shortly after some five million people across the country, according to union estimates, staged a 15-minute work stoppage at noon to protest the war plans.
Opposition politicians joined workers from government offices, businesses and factories in the protest called by the European Confederation of Unions.
Socialist party leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said he hoped that Aznar would tell Bush at the summit "that if he (Bush) hasn't got the support of the United Nations for a military attack, then he shouldn't do it ... That's what the majority of people want."
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Germans stopped work for 10 minutes Friday to protest a possible war, bringing car assembly lines to a halt and trams in one city to a standstill.
Labour unions, which organized the action, said more than 150,000 workers at factories across the country - among them three Volkswagen factories and a DaimlerChrysler plant in Duesseldorf - walked off their jobs briefly as part of a Europe-wide demonstration for peace. In the eastern city of Halle, trams ground to a halt.
Polls have showed an overwhelming majority of Germans oppose military action against Iraq, and activists have threatened to step up protests if war breaks out. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government, together with France and Russia, has been leading resistance to a proposed U.S.-British resolution that would give Baghdad a short deadline to disarm, or face war.
In Spain, political parties and labour unions have called for a massive turnout for anti-war demonstrations to be held Saturday as part of protests called around the globe.
Today, the foreign ministry reissued a statement calling on Spaniards not to travel to Iraq and those who are there to leave the country because of the "rapidly deteriorating international situation."
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