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| Sunday, 16 February 2003 |
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Millions expected as global anti-war protests start Millions of people around the world were expected to demonstrate Saturday against war in Iraq after the US said it would wait only "weeks" before deciding to act against Baghdad. Protest organisers were expecting to see people rally against possible conflict on a scale not seen since the demonstrations against the war in Vietnam, bolstered by the presence of politicians and stars the world of showbusiness. The mass protests planned for Saturday kicked off in New Zealand where around 7,000 demonstrators filled the lawn in front of the parliament in Wellington while a similar number marched through Auckland, where yachting's America's Cup was taking place. Environmental organisation Greenpeace flew over the America's Cup village towing a large banner behind an aircraft, reading "No War, Peace Now". Rallies were being held across Australia in Perth, Hobart and Canberra to be followed on Sunday by others in Brisbane, Darwin, Adelaide and Sydney. More than 100,000 anti-war demonstrators were estimated to have jammed the centre of Melbourne on Friday, bringing the city to a standstill in one of the biggest demonstrations seen in the city since the early 1970s. Australia and Britain are the only countries so far to have sent forces to the Gulf to join the US military build-up in preparation for war to disarm Iraq. In Tokyo, a month-old sit-in protest continued Saturday in front of the US embassy with a dozen acivists holding up placards reading: "(Prime Minister Junichiro) Koizumi says yes. We say no to the attack on Iraq," "We support Old Europe," and "War is not the answer." Protestor Tetsu Kawasaki said: "Some 900,000 people will become refugees as a result of war. The United States should heed what the international community says." Around 25,000 protestors rallied in downtown Tokyo Friday night, according to organisers. In the Thai capital Bangkok some 3,000 demonstrators marched to the US embassy Saturday chanting "Nothing justifies war," and "No war, we want peace." "We are protesting to seek peace and to stop Bush from making war," Niti Hassan, secretary general of the Council of Muslim Organizations of Thailand, told AFP. In Britain anti-war activists were expecting more than 500,000 people to turn out Saturday for a London march which they hoped would be the country's largest protest in recent times. "It's going to be the biggest demonstration Britain has ever seen. A conservative estimate would be half a million people," Patrick Vandenbulck, a spokesman for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, one of the march's organisers, told AFP. Paris, Berlin and New York were also to be the focus of major demonstrations with marches and rallies additionally planned for Rome, Madrid, Athens, Istanbul and Paris. "Whether or not the war takes place under the aegis of the United Nations, it will be catastrophic for the Iraqi and Kurdish peoples," French organisers said. German unions, rights groups and political associations were gearing up for what was expected the biggest peace rally in Berlin in a decade. "It will be the most surprising peace mobilisation since the big protests of the 1980s," when the United States deployed missiles in Germany aimed at the former Soviet Union, said an organiser. New York is the focus of the main United States anti-war demonstration, with hundreds of thousands expected at a rally near UN headquarters. Celebrities expected included movie stars Danny Glover and Susan Sarandon. Demonstrations were also being held or planned in Taiwan and Hong Kong while in the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal ex-British Gurkha soldiers were to rally in Kathmandu. Islamic Asia is also due to mark its opposition to the war, with Malaysian activists expected to protest in the capital Kuala Lumpur and on the island state of Penang. In Pakistan, the Lahore-based Pakistan Anti-War Committee, a coalition of labour and political groups, said it had protests planned for 20 cities. Opinion polls in most countries show large majorities of the population opposed to a war, especially if the United States tries to start one without backing from the United Nations. Iraq, the target of the planned military assault, has the second largest known reserves of oil of any country in the world, after Saudi Arabia. The rallies were being held after chief weapons inspector Hans Blix delivered a mixed report at the United Nations on Iraqi disarmament which left the United States in a minority in arguing against further inspections. After the tense Security Council session on Friday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States would only wait "weeks" before deciding whether to launch its own action. |
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