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World protests war in Iraq(Kuwait Times Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)LONDON: Thousands of people held anti-war demonstrations yesterday in global protests that marked the third anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq by demanding that coalition troops pull out. But the demonstrations attracted less people than organisers had hoped. In London, police said about 15,000 people joined a march from Parliament and Big Ben to a rally in Trafalgar Square, fewer than the 100,000 organisers had expected to attend. The city's Mayor Ken Livingstone made an appearance at the event. Protesters in several cities carried posters showing pictures of US President George W Bush, calling him the "world's No. 1 terrorist." Joining their counterparts around the country and the world, demonstrators rallied in Times Square yesterday in New York to mark the third anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, demanding that troops be pulled out. "We say enough hypocrisy, enough lies, our soldiers must come home now," said Waleed Bader of the Arab Muslim American Federation. He addressed the crowd, gathered near a military recruiting station guarded by police vehicles and mounted officers, from the flatbed of a truck draped with anti-war messages. "Stop the US war machine, from Iraq to Korea to the Philippines," some participants chanted. "And free, free, free Palestine and end the occupation." Other participants showed up at the rally to send messages of support to US troops in Iraq. In London, other posters pictured British Prime Minister Tony Blair, saying "Blair must go!" "We are against this war, both for religious reasons and on a humanitarian basis, too," said student Imran Saghir, 25, a Muslim who attended the London rally. Speakers in London demanded coalition forces be withdrawn from Iraq, warning that the fighting could spread to neighbouring Iran because of the international standoff over Tehran's nuclear programme. "We must redouble our efforts not just to stop this war, but to say 'no' to an attack on Iran," said Mark Serwotka, the head of the Public and Commercial Services union. Britain, the United States' strongest supporter in the Iraq war, has about 8,000 troops in Iraq but plans to pull out 800 of them by May. The British military has reported 103 deaths there. In Stockholm, about 1,000 demonstrators gathered for a rally and march to the US Embassy. Protesters carried banners reading "No to US warmongering" and "USA out of Iraq," while some held up a US flag with the white stars replaced by dollar signs. One protester was dressed as the hooded figure shown in an iconic photograph from the Abu Ghraib prison. "We do not need Abu Ghraib democracy, or Guantanamo Bay freedom," said Eftikar Hashem Alhusainy, addressing the rally. In Copenhagen, more than 2,000 demonstrators marched from the US embassy to the British embassy, demanding that Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen withdraws the 530 Danish troops stationed in southern Iraq. Demonstrations were also held in three other Danish cities, drawing close to 2,000 protesters, said Joern Andersen, one of the organisers. In Turkey, where opposition to the war is nearly universal and cuts across all political stripes, about 3,000 protesters gathered in Istanbul, police said. "Murderer USA," read a sign unfurled by a communist in Taksim Square in European Istanbul. "USA, go home!" said red-and-black signs carried in Kadikoy on the city's Asian coast. Turkey, Iraq's northern neighbour, is the only Muslim-majority member of Nato alliance. Previously close relations with Washington were severely strained after parliament refused to allow US troops to launch operations into Iraq from Turkish territory. In Italy, Romano Prodi, the centre-left leader who is challenging conservative Premier Silvio Berlusconi in next month's election, said he and his supporters wouldn't join Rome's march because of a risk of violence. The rally drew several thousand people and Francesco Romano, a 46- year old state railway worker said protesters were proving "people are not in favour of the war in Iraq and will not be in favour of future wars." In Greece, about 600 demonstrators marched through central Athens to the US embassy, where protesters chanted "Stop the War now," and "American killers get out of Iraq." About 700 protesters marched peacefully through an inner-city district of Berlin during a rally, police said. In Austria, protesters marching through Vienna - about 200 by police estimates - chanted "Freedom, freedom for Iraq and Palestine," as they made their way to the US embassy. Communist party officials in Portugal also organised an anti-war rally in Lisbon, claiming solidarity with "the fight of the Iraqi people". Peace activists staged a peaceful march in Geneva where one of the anti-war organisers said that "there is even less legitimacy to the American presence in Iraq today than there was three years ago." In the Spanish city of Barcelona 2,000 people according to the police but 4,000 according to organisers joined a march protesting the war in Iraq. Across Pakistan, hundreds of Islamists and human right activists chanting "Down with America" held rallies. Around 300 Islamists, including several women, marched through Multan, a main city in the eastern Punjab province, chanting slogans against the US. They also burned some US flags to express anger against Washington. "We have gathered here to tell America that we want peace, not war," said Babar Man, a local Islamic leader. He urged US President George W Bush to end operations in Iraq and immediately withdraw troops to avoid any further bloodshed. About 100 human rights activists held a similar rally in this city, while 200 others gathered in the southern city of Karachi to condemn the US invasion of Iraq. Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, but it has not supported the US attacks in Iraq. In Tokyo, about 2,000 people rallied in a downtown park, carrying signs saying "Stop the Occupation" as they listened to a series of anti-war speeches. "The war is illegal under international law," said Takeshiko Tsukushi, a member of World Peace Now, which helped plan the rally. "We want the immediate withdrawal of the Self Defence Forces and from Iraq along with all foreign troops." The anti-war scene was being repeated around the US. In New Hampshire nearly 300 peace activists marched about a kilometre from the New Hampshire National Guard Armory to the Statehouse in protest. "I feel a huge sense of betrayal that I went and risked my life for a lie," said Joseph Turcott, 26, a former Marine who served in the initial invasion. At Dudley Square in Boston, a few hundred college-aged activists and baby boomers waved placards that read "Impeach Bush" and "Stop the War." Speakers used the bed of a white pickup truck as a dais, evoking peace chants from the crowd and decrying the president. "It seems like we are fighting a King George in the same way General Washington fought a King George, who was equally imperialistic," said Askia Toure, a local poet and activist. Today, up to 3,000 demonstrators are expected in Seoul, South Korea, which has the third-largest contingent of foreign troops in Iraq after the US and Britain, while a rally was planned outside the US Embassy in Malaysia's largest city, Kuala Lumpur. Britain's defence chief earlier urged demonstrators in London to support the Iraqi people and condemn terrorism. "When people go on the streets of London today, I do wish just occasionally they would go out in support of the United Nations, the Iraqi people and the Iraqi democrats and condemn terrorists," Defence Secretary John Reid told British Broadcasting Corp radio during a visit to Iraq. Members of the Stop the War Coalition, the organisers of the London march, had little sympathy for Reid's remarks. "Every day you hear of new deaths. Tony Blair has actually made Iraq a worse place for the Iraqi people," said Rose Gentle, whose soldier son Gordon, 19, was killed by a roadside bomb last year in Basra, southern Iraq. - Agencies |