From the biggest news site in the UK.
Anti-war protesters took to the
streets around the globe today, determined to keep the pressure on world
leaders as a US-led attack on Iraq looms.
The outpouring of anti-war sentiment came one month after millions turned
out for some of the biggest demonstrations in decades in capitals around
the world. But amid the chants of "give peace a chance" were
pessimistic voices as well.
"This is a symbol," said Mohammed Abdel Qudos, a writer who
joined about 300 marchers at Cairo University. "We know that we
won't prevent war, but we are just expressing our opposition."
The intimidating presence of more than 1,000 police kept many onlookers,
like law student Mohammed Said Ahmed, on the sidelines. "I think the
demonstrations are useless," he said. "Nothing will change. It
won't influence the decision-makers in Egypt."
Egypt has been criticised by international rights groups for arresting
anti-war demonstrators. But it has allowed an increasing number of
protests in recent weeks, indicating authorities are seeking ways to let
people vent their frustrations.
Marchers elsewhere insisted war was not inevitable.
"We feel that there's still time to get our government to change
policy," said Nic Maclellan, march coordinator in Melbourne,
Australia, where the prime minister, John Howard, is a staunch supporter
of Washington's hardline stance on Iraq.
Across the Middle East and Europe, protesters called for a peaceful
resolution of the Iraq crisis. Speakers in Stockholm, Sweden, where 3,000
demonstrators gathered, urged an end to "the US and British war
hysteria."
About 7,500 activists chanted "Yankee go home!" in the Turkish
port city of Iskenderun, where the US military has been unloading
equipment for use in a possible war.
Another march was planned for outside the White House itself.
"The strength of the movement has prevented a war from happening
before now," Tony Murphy of the International Answer coalition, the
main protest organiser, said in Washington. "We feel that it's not
too late for the people to stop this war."
About 10,000 Japanese - double last month's turnout - chanted "No
war!" as they moved through Tokyo's business district with handmade
placards such as "World Peace" and "Bush the
terrorist."
"When I imagine Iraqi children desperately running around in
battlefields, I just couldn't sit around the house waiting for that to
happen," said Chizuko Matsuno, a 62-year-old housewife.
Two thousand South Koreans threw paper doves into the evening sky in
downtown Seoul, while some of the 300 protesters in Hong Kong wore mock
oil barrels - suggesting that oil, not Iraqi disarmament, is behind the
war drive.
In Thailand, about 1,000 people protested outside a UN office in Bangkok,
listening to speeches from a makeshift stage that was later turned over
for karaoke singing.
Tens of thousands of Yemenis heeded President Ali Abdullah Saleh's call
to turn out for anti-war rallies that were held amid tight security
measures. Jordanian activists were to march to the UN offices in Amman.
Some 3,000 Greek Cypriots marched to the US embassy and hung cloth
banners with anti-war messages on the barbed-wire barricades.
More than 10,000 people marched to the American embassy in Athens,
Greece, carrying "Stop the war" banners, and more than a
thousand communist and leftwing demonstrators protested in Moscow.
Hundreds of mostly young people marched through Bucharest calling for US
troops stationed in Romania to leave and protesting their government's
fervently pro-U.S. stance in a possible war in Iraq.
"We don't want to be a nation of slaves" they chanted as they
urged passers-by to join their protest.
British Muslims planned to march past the London embassies of Islamic
countries including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Qatar and
Pakistan.
"Without the cooperation of these regimes it would be virtually
impossible for America to invade Iraq," said Zafer Iqbal, whose soft
drink company Qibla Cola is sponsoring the march.
The anti-war campaign was to continue Sunday with candlelight vigils in
more than 1,000 cities.
� Hundreds of people from Britain's Iraqi community were today
protesting outside the Houses of Parliament in support of an attack on
Iraq, and a petition was being delivered to the French embassy in central
London to register opposition to the stance of the French president,
Jacquest Chirac.
The protest coincides with the 15th anniversary of the Halabja massacre,
where 5,000 Kurds were killed after the Iraqi government ordered a
chemical weapons attack.
Special reports
The
anti-war movement
Iraq
Afghanistan
Useful links
28.01.2003:
Guide to
anti-war websites
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,914908,00.html
