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| Global Anti-war Protests Continue Unabated |
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| Tuesday, March 25 2003 @ 11:30 PM GMT |
WORLD CAPITALS - With the war on Iraq entering its sixth day, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators continued to flock to the streets of world capitals Tuesday, to protest the war, waged without a mandate from the U.N. Security Council.
Several thousand demonstrators, mainly school and university students, marched through central Paris Tuesday to protest against the US-led invasion of Iraq, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
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Several thousand French
demonstrators march through
central Paris to protest
against the U.S.-led war on
Iraq |
The demonstration was headed to the Place de la Concorde where organizers said they were planning a sit-in near the heavily-protected American embassy.
The current war on Iraq is of a type that has been rejected by the conscience of humanity, anti-war Pope John Paul II said on Tuesday, expressing "deep concern and great anguish" at the suffering caused by the conflict.
In a message to Catholic military chaplains gathered at the Vatican, the pope said: "The use of war as a way to settle conflicts between nations was rejected by the conscience of a large part of humanity, long before the United Nations Charter."
"Thoughts for the victims, the destruction and the suffering caused by conflicts always inspire great concern and anguish," added the pontiff.
Making it clear that his remarks concerned the present conflict, the pope also said that the only form of military action that could be considered legitimate was in defense against an aggression.
The pope also told the chaplains, who were in the Vatican for a training course, that "when weapons go into action, the need for rules which can make the conduct of warfare less inhuman becomes imperative."
"Your course comes at a difficult time in history, when the world is once again facing the sound of gunfire," the pope added.
Arabs Ready To "Sacrifice Themselves" For Iraq
"We will sacrifice ourselves for Iraq," demonstrators chanted in Damascus as they marched from the Hijaz train station to parliament.
"Bush, Blair, Sharon, the triangle of international terrorism," read their placards, referring to U.S. President George W. Bush, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair and Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon.
The demonstrators, mostly civil servants, students and members of Syria's Baath party-led ruling coalition, also carried portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Iraqi counterpart Saddam Hussein.
Syria, the only Arab member on the U.N. Security Council, has been a strong critic of the ongoing war.
"The Iraqi cause is inseparable from the Palestinian cause," read banners carried by young protesters, in what was the first major demonstration held in Syria since the beginning of the U.S.-led war on Iraq.
Anti-riot police posted around the U.S. embassy prevented the demonstrators from approaching the mission.
Elsewhere in the Arab world, thousands of Libyans as well as other Arab and African nationals demonstrated in Tripoli, where they burnt effigies of war allies Bush and Blair.
"With our blood, we will sacrifice ourselves for you, Iraq," chanted the crowd estimated to number 30,000 outside the Iraqi embassy.
Police cordoned off roads leading to the embassies of Britain and Kuwait, where a Kuwaiti flag was torn down on Sunday by protesters angry at the emirate's support for the war on its neighbor Iraq.
The bulk of the quarter of a million U.S. and British troops waging war have used Kuwait as a springboard.
In Egypt, thousands of students kept up their daily pro-Iraq demonstrations held around the country since the start of the war, organizers said.
"Open the borders, let us go fight," students chanted in Kafr al-Sheikh, north of Cairo. "Bush, Blair, Sharon, go to hell."
More than 3,000 students at Menufiya university, north of Cairo, also protested, as did 2,000 from the women's section of Al-Azhar Islamic university in the capital.
Students in Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast said they had launched a solidarity campaign, calling random telephone subscribers in Iraq to pledge their support.
Almost 800 people have been detained, including 84 remanded in custody for two weeks, following violent demonstrations last Thursday and Friday in Cairo, according to a source close to the Egyptian bar association.
Street demonstrations are banned in Egypt under emergency laws in effect for the past two decades but they are tolerated on university campuses or the compounds of mosques.
Egypt's interior ministry said Friday that permits would be granted for peaceful demonstrations.
In Egypt's southern neighbor Sudan, a crowd estimated at 30,000 marched in the capital Khartoum, burning U.S. and British flags, effigies of Bush and Blair and coffins bearing the words "U.N." and "democracy" outside the Iraqi embassy.
They shouted slogans against the United States, Britain and Israel, and some brandished pictures of Saddam Hussein.
The secretary general of the ruling National Congress party, Ibrahim Ahmed Omar, told the crowd, which the official Suna news agency put at one million, "the Sudanese people are in the same trench as Iraq against invaders and aggressors."
Indonesians Snub U.S. Aid Funds
Indonesia's leading human rights group, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, said Tuesday it would refuse funds from the U.S. government and its allies in protest at the invasion of Iraq.
"This is a form of our protest against the attitude of the three countries which have ignored the international community," foundation chairman Munarman told AFP.
He said his organization would reject all cooperation with and funding from agencies supported or related to the U.S., British and Australian governments.
On Monday, March 24, the country's leading environmental watchdog -- known as Walhi -- announced it would no longer accept funding linked to those governments.
A women's advocacy group, the Advisory Association for Women Entrepreneurs in Indonesia, announced a similar move on Monday, Munarman said.
He called the invasion a humanitarian tragedy and a gross violation of human rights.
"We are also calling on other NGOs in Indonesia to halt all kind of cooperation with the governments of the United States, Britain and Australia," Munarman said.
He added that his foundation would halt a legal advocacy program funded by the Australian international development agency.
The program has been running for eight months and there were two months left.
Munarman said his organization would refund the 200 million rupiah (22,222 dollars) covering the two remaining months.
The legal aid foundation currently has no funding assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Malaysians Demand End To War
Some 100 Malaysian peace activists gathered outside the United States embassy on Tuesday to demand an immediate end to the war against Iraq, defying a police ban on anti-war protests.
The noisy demonstration was organized by youth members of the country's ruling National Front coalition and opposition parties, including the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), and police made no effort to prevent it.
Chanting slogans in Arabic and punching their fists into the air, the protestors described the U.S. government as infidels (unbelievers) and Bush as a devil.
"They are infidels. They are creating havoc worldwide. God will give victory to those who are innocent," they shouted.
Salahuddin Ayub, PAS deputy youth chief told the demonstrators that the U.S. was a "gangster."
"We demand the U.S. to leave Iraq immediately," he said, as he led a chorus shouting "down down U.S. God is great."
Hishammuddin Hussein, youth chief of the ruling United Malays National Organization, led a delegation into the embassy to hand a memorandum to ambassador Marie T. Huhtala.
The protest note condemned the unilateral military action by the U.S. and its allies on Iraq.
It also urged the coalition forces to cease military action and called on the international community to extend immediate humanitarian aid to the people of Iraq.
Indians Seeking Medical Aid To Iraqis
Two prominent Indian groups launched a nationwide appeal for emergency medical aid for Iraq on Tuesday and urged New Delhi to help airlift thousands of physicians to help the wounded in the war zone.
Islamic religious organization Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind and satellite station Jain Television joined hands to set up the "Iraq Relief Fund" and, at a press conference here, urged India's billion-plus population to donate money for war-hit Iraqis.
"We propose to send a medical relief mission to Iraq. We appeal to everyone for their support to ensure that airplanes loaded with doctors, relief workers and medicines start landing in Iraq to serve the humanitarian emergency that country is facing today," initiative convener J.K. Jain said.
Jain, who returned with an Indian delegation from Iraq recently, said the U.S.-led military strikes were nothing compared to Iraq's degradation by the sanctions imposed by the United Nations following the 1991 Gulf War.
"There is clear evidence that Iraqi children born after 1991 have been deprived of immunization, medicine and nutrition -- resulting in the death of several hundreds of thousands of children," said Jain, also a surgeon and an Indian lawmaker.
Pakistanis Praying For Iraqi Victims
Hundreds of Islamic party members joined by lawyers and traders offered funeral prayers for Iraqi civilians killed in U.S. military strikes as anti-U.S. protests continued for the sixth day in a row.
"Bush should be tried for the murder of Muslims," President of the District Bar Association Javed Khan Tanoli told an emotional crowd of some 600 people in Haripur town, 80 kilometers northwest of Islamabad.
"The government should snap diplomatic ties with the United States and close down its mission in Pakistan," added Muslim scholar Ibrahim Zaheer.
Zaheer, who is a local leader of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), six-party alliance of religious parties, predicted: "Iraq will become a graveyard of Americans."
The protesters offered funeral prayers for the unknown number of Iraqi Muslims "martyred" since the United States unleashed its war of aggression on Iraq.
Iranians Rally In Support Of Iraqis
More than 700 people staged a protest in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahwaz against the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, in the Islamic republic's largest anti-war rally so far, state media said Tuesday.
The demonstration took place Monday afternoon in the capital of the oil-rich province of Khuzistan, 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of the Iraqi border, the IRNA news agency said.
An Imam told the crowd gathered in front of a religious school they had a "religious duty" to support Iraqis, who were being "crushed by the bombings and brutal arrogance of the United States."
The protestors chanted for the "death" of the United States, and its allies Israel and Britain.
The turnout was also notable because Ahwaz is home to more than 1.5 million mostly Arab nomads and Bedouin who suffered badly during the 1980-88 war with Iraq.
There is little love lost anywhere in Iran for Saddam Hussein's regime because of the war which cost an estimated one million lives.
However, the government's propaganda arm, the Coordination Council of Islamic Propaganda, on Monday called for the first time for mass protests against the U.S.-led war after the mainly Muslim weekly prayers on Friday.
Iran has maintained a studied neutrality towards the U.S.-led war.
Afghanistan Sees Anti-war Demo
In Afghanistan more than 500 students took to the streets of the country's main eastern city Jalalabad in the second major protest against the U.S.-led attacks on Iraq, witnesses said.
Chanting anti-war slogans including "stop attacks on Iraq" and "stop atrocities on Muslims," the students made the five kilometer journey from Jalalabad's university to the city center.
The official Bakhter news agency said the demonstration ended peacefully, while one official, who asked not to be named, said some protesters were throwing stones at U.S. forces stationed in the city.
Tuesday's protest follows a major demonstration Sunday, March 23, in the eastern province of Laghman in which thousands voiced their opposition to military intervention in Iraq.
130 Anti-war Americans Arrested
Anti-war demonstrators thronged the streets of San Francisco on Monday, blocking entrances one of the city's top landmarks as part of a dogged campaign against the U.S. war on Iraq, police said.
The protests were among scores who have erupted across the United States since U.S.-led forces attacked Iraq last week.
Police said they had arrested 130 people in the city's downtown financial district for failing to disperse as hundreds of demonstrators waged a civil disobedience campaign launched last week to protest the war.
The protesters blocked the entrances to the famous pyramid-shaped Transamerica Building as well as to the city's Federal Building that houses government offices, police and organizers said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of students occupied the main administration building at San Francisco State University in another protest against the war and cutbacks in education funding.
They demanded to meet with the university president to discuss their call for the institution to officially condemn the conflict raging in the Middle East but eventually vacated the building after university officials threatened to call the police.
The protests came after more than 1,600 people were arrested on Thursday and Friday in San Francisco in a campaign of civil disobedience launched after the United States' initial strike against Iraq.
-[IslamOnline & News Agencies (islamonline.net).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle.
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