Millions Join Global Anti-war Protests by BBC News 2:27pm 16th Feb, 2003   Sunday, 16 February, 2003,    Millions of people worldwide are marching in demonstrations against a possible US-led war against Iraq. Hundreds of peace rallies are taking place in up to 60 countries this weekend. The demonstration in London was the capital's biggest in peacetime. The organisers put the turnout at nearly two million, while police said it was more than 750,000.    Protests are now getting under way in the United States, with the main rally taking place outside the UN headquarters in New York. Hundreds of thousands of anti-war protesters thronged the streets of Paris, Rome, and Berlin. In Barcelona, Spain police estimated that up to 1.3 million people marched in support of peace, with around 200,000 marching in Seville and more than 600,000 in Madrid, the Associated Press news agency reported.    Sporadic violence - blamed by police on anarchists - was reported in Athens, Greece, but so far the demonstrations have been peaceful.    The demonstrations come a day after UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix issued a largely positive assessment of the UN's disarmament process in Iraq.    Addressing a massive crowd in Hyde Park, London mayor Ken Livingstone said "this is all Britain standing together regardless of age, race or sex". "This war is solely about oil. (US President) George Bush has never given a damn about human rights," he said.    "It was a wonderful feeling to be with over 150,000 people all opposed to our government's stance on the war". said Ann de Hugard, Melbourne, Australia    Veteran US civil rights activist Jesse Jackson told the Hyde Park rally that "it is not too late to stop this war". The protesters marched under a sea of multi-coloured banners and slogans such as "No War On Iraq" and "Make Tea, Not War".    UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has suffered a fall in popularity following his staunch support of US plans to launch military action against Saddam Hussein. In New York, celebrities and activists such as Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and black activist Angela Davis attended a peace rally near the United Nations headquarters. Mr Tutu, addressing an estimated crowd of at least 100,000 people, said that those who wished to wage war on Iraq "must know it would be an immoral war". Some families of the victims of the attack on the World Trade Center also attended the rally. Several placards carried the phrase "Thank You France and Germany", a reference to the European countries' opposition to war, French news agency AFP reported.    Demonstrations have also been held in cities across the Middle East, including Israel, and in East Asia. Protesters marched in the capital of Syria In a rare sign of unity, 3,000 Jews and Arabs marched together in Tel Aviv.    Officials reported at least one million people marched in the streets of Baghdad, while in the Syrian capital of Damascus more than 200,000 people marched, with one banner carrying the slogan "Axis of Evil: America, Britain, Israel".    Some of the first protests on Saturday were seen in New Zealand, as environmental pressure group Greenpeace flew a plane over Auckland harbour trailing a banner reading "No War, Peace Now". About 5,000 marched through Auckland and a similar number in the capital Wellington.    Rallies were held in several cities in Australia, where a protest in Melbourne on Friday drew a crowd estimated by organisers at 150,000 - the largest there since anti-Vietnam War marches 30 years ago.    In Seoul - capital of South Korea, one of the staunchest US allies in Asia - hundreds of demonstrators rallied, shouting chants such as "Bush, Terrorist!" and carrying banners urging "Drop Bush, not bombs".    In Malaysia - a predominantly Muslim state - hundreds demonstrated outside the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur. despite a police ban on the demonstration. Officers eventually persuaded the crowd to move on peacefully while colleagues in riot gear stood by. The Malaysian Government has been a strong critic of US policy towards Iraq. However its opponents claim that it wants to channel support for the anti-war movement into a government backed Malaysians for Peace campaign. The organisers of Malaysians for Peace claim to have gathered more than one million signatures against war and are planning a large rally next Saturday to coincide with the Non Aligned Movement summit which will bring dozens of world leaders to Kuala Lumpur.    In Singapore, where public demonstrations are not permitted, two women were moved on by police after a brief protest against war in Iraq outside the US embassy. In Thailand about 2,000 people - mostly Muslims - rallied in front of the US and UK embassies in the capital on Saturday. (ENDS)    Published on February 15, 2003 by the New York Times    From New York to Melbourne, Cries for Peace by Robert D. McFadden    Confronting America's countdown to war, throngs of chanting, placard-waving demonstrators converged on New York and scores of cities across the United States, Europe and Asia today in a global daisy chain of largely peaceful protests against the Bush administration's threatened invasion of Iraq.    Three years after vast crowds turned out around the world to celebrate the new millennium, millions gathered again today in a darker mood of impending conflict, forming a patchwork of demonstrations that together, organizers said, made up the largest, most diverse peace protest since the Vietnam War.    On a freezing winter day in New York, a huge crowd, prohibited by a court order from marching, rallied within sight of the United Nations amid heavy security. They raised banners of patriotism and dissent, sounded the hymns of a broad new antiwar movement and heard speakers denounce what they called President Bush's rush to war, while offering no sympathy for Iraq's dictator, Saddam Hussein.    "The World Says No to War," proclaimed a huge banner over a stage on First Avenue near 51st Street, the focal point of a vast crowd that filled the avenue between 49th and 72nd Streets and spilled over into the side streets and to Second, Third and Lexington Avenues, where thousands more were halted at police barricades, far from the sights and sounds of the demonstration.    Crowd estimates are often little more than politically tinged guesses, and the police did not provide one. Organizers said that more than 400,000 people attended and, given the sea of faces extending for more than a mile up First Avenue and the ancillary crowds that were prevented from joining them, the claim did not appear to be wildly improbable.    There were similar though smaller demonstrations in Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle, San Diego, Sacramento, Miami and scores of other American cities, organized under the umbrella of United for Peace and Justice, a coalition of 120 organizations.    In London, 500,000 to 750,000 people rallied in Hyde Park, while 200,000 gathered at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and hundreds of thousands more protested in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Barcelona, Rome, Melbourne, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Auckland, Seoul, Tokyo and Manila. Many contended that America's interest in Iraq had more to do with oil than disarming a dangerous tyrant.    Thousands gather for an anti-war demonstration on first avenue on New York City's East Side near United Nations headquarters in New York City, February 15, 2003. Hundreds of thousands flocked to the huge rally against a possible war with Iraq, after a New York judge denied organizers a permit for a march through the city's streets citing security concerns. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton    Protests unfolded in more than 350 cities around the world — some drawing hundreds of thousands, others only a few hundred — and for the most part the dissents were peaceful. There were about two dozen arrests for disorderly conduct in New York, and the police in Athens fired tear gas and clashed with demonstrators who threw a gasoline bomb, but no injuries were reported.    The demonstrations were the culmination of a global campaign that has been building for weeks in opposition to the growing threat of war, with thousands marching, rallying, signing petitions, raising funds, publishing articles and using the Internet to enlist a diverse coalition of citizens and celebrities.    Unlike the stereotypical scruffy, pot-smoking, flag-burning anarchists of the Vietnam era, today's protests were joined by a wide segment of the political spectrum: college students, middle-aged couples, families, older people who had marched for civil rights, and groups representing labor, the environment and religious, business and civic organizations.    For most demonstrators, President Bush was the chief villain, a casualty of what some called an obsession with his father's Persian Gulf War in 1991 and its failure to oust Saddam Hussein. Other targets were Mr. Bush's secretary of defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld, and his secretary of state, Colin L. Powell.    "I came to go to the rally and be a part of a global voice against going to war against Iraq again," said Mary Baxter, 31, employed by a software company in Cambridge, Mass., whose quiet solemnity seemed typical. "I feel the current administration has been escalating and destabilizing things. I'm disappointed that Colin Powell is going along with Bush, Cheney and the rest of them."    Angela Tsang, 21, a Barnard College student who was part of a contingent called the Columbia University Antiwar Coalition, said her group believed that an American attack on Iraq would achieve nothing but death and injustice.    "We see the war against Iraq as unjust," she said. "We don't believe Bush's rhetoric. I think he's not acting in the best interest of the American people. We're risking the lives of hundreds of American soldiers and an untold number of lives in the Middle East, and a war will not solve the problem of terrorism. It disgusts me. I can't accept that."    Beyond criticizing Mr. Bush and his lieutanants, many protesters offered nuanced arguments about the conflict, agreeing that President Hussein should not be allowed to possess weapons of mass destruction, but insisting that pre-emptive military strikes were morally bankrupt and would harm the economy, deepen the divisions between America and the Arab world and undermine United States alliances in Europe and Asia.    It was a hard day for a rally in New York. The ground was frozen and the protesters were buttoned to the eyes against the 25-degree cold and an icy wind that scythed off the East River and scorched the face. But the crowd was enthusiastic: cheering speakers, chanting antiwar slogans and raising banners that promoted other agendas as well, including "Free Palestine" and "Free Medical Marijuana."    They were joined by a number of celebrities, including Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and the actors Danny Glover, Susan Sarandon and Harry Belafonte. American flags and other symbols of patriotism waved in the crowds.    The singer Richie Havens led off the proceedings with a rendition of "Freedom," the song he performed 34 years ago on Max Yasgur's Farm for the Woodstock Festival.    "Peace! Peace! Peace!" Bishop Tutu, the 71-year-old veteran of the peace movement, declared. "Let America listen to the rest of the world — and the rest of the world is saying, `Give the inspectors time.' "    Martin Luther King 3rd told the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd, "Just because you have the biggest gun does not mean you must use it."    One face in the crowd belonged to Michael Callandrillo, 53, a teacher from Dover, N.J. "I've been to demonstrations and rallies all over the country, and some have had a nasty feel to them," he said. "Others have had a lackluster feeling. But this one feels just right. People are informed, people are passionate. People don't want trouble. They just want to be heard."    All morning, buses had converged on Midtown Manhattan, disgorging groups from New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, and other states. Despite lines of barricades and a huge police presence, surging crowds spilled off sidewalks, jammed streets leading to the East Side and occasionally clashed with police officers.    In accordance with a federal court order, the demonstrators in New York were prohibited from staging a march, which city officials had insisted might be dangerous to the protesters. Instead, they were limited to a rally behind barricades, a penned-in, more pacific and less powerful expression of protest.    The area set aside for the rally, First Avenue between 49th Street and 72nd Street, was filled from sidewalk to sidewalk by early afternoon, and thousands more were caught behind barricades on other East Side avenues and streets, enable to reach the demonstration.    Blocked by barricades and officers, a few dozen protesters were arrested at Second Avenue between 53rd and 54th Streets when they breached the barricades in an attempt to get to the rally. They were charged with disorderly conduct, officers said. Many in the crowd at that location were waving Palestinian flags and chanting: "Free Palestine."    But the main body of demonstrators consisted of young to middle-aged Americans who were skeptical of Bush administration war plans and frustrated by the seemingly implacable move toward conflict, the mobilization and movement of naval flotillas, aircraft and thousands of troops into the Persian Gulf region in recent weeks, and daily pronouncements from Washington about war preparations and the urgency of invading Iraq.    The police did not disclose details of their security operation, but it was mounted during one of the most intense national security alerts since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and it included thousands of uniformed officers in the streets, sharp-shooters on rooftops and plainclothes officers in the crowds.    Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company    February 17 2003    Millions march for peace By Peter Fray    London. Tim Colebatch, Canberra.The Age Newspaper.    The Rome protest snaked around the Collosseum and featured more than 800,000 rainbow banners bearing the word Peace.    The United States and Britain have indicated they will press on with a second UN resolution preparing the way for war against Iraq - in spite of a weekend of unprecedented worldwide peace rallies.    An estimated six million people - including about 500,000 Australians - marched across 600 towns and cities in the biggest co-ordinated anti-war protest in history.    As up to one million people gathered in central London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that failing to act against President Saddam Hussein would have "bloody consequences".    "Ridding the world of Saddam would be an act of humanity," he told his party's spring conference in Glasgow. "It is leaving him there that is in truth inhumane."    In Australia, Prime Minister John Howard also remained resolute after mass protests across the nation.    "In the end, my charge as Prime Minister is to take whatever decision I think is in the best interests of the country," Mr Howard said in a television interview last night after returning from his so-called "peace mission" to the US, Britain and Indonesia.    British and US diplomats at the UN are likely to start circulating a draft second resolution by the middle of this week, although it may not explicitly call for war against Iraq.    US officials said yesterday that they were still working on the resolution, but the language may have to be softened after Friday's report by chief weapons inspector Hans Blix.    The US position received support from unexpected quarters yesterday, when UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the Blix report "did not indicate that tangible progress has been made".    Mr Annan warned Baghdad not to try to take advantage of the split between permanent members of the Security Council, saying: "Iraq should not think that we are in disagreement. A second resolution could (still) be necessary."    France, Russia and China, all permanent members of the Security Council, have said they want weapons inspectors to be given more time and currently oppose war.    The White House said yesterday that President George Bush was still hoping to avert a war. "He still hopes for a peaceful resolution, and that is up to Saddam Hussein," said White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo.    Mr Howard stuck to his guns last night in a 60 Minutes interview. "If my critics are listened to, the world will turn its back on the problem," he said.    "Worse still, it will make it impossible to control countries like North Korea. If the UN and the world community can't discipline Iraq, then it has no hope of disciplining North Korea."    But Mr Howard also insisted the Government would not decide whether to commit Australian troops to battle while the international negotiations continued.    "One of my responsibilities is to maintain maximum flexibility on issues like this right up to the end," Mr Howard said.    Police estimated that about 200,000 people joined yesterday's protest march in Sydney, with about 50,000 in Brisbane and a similar number in Adelaide. In Melbourne, an estimated 150,000 people demonstrated against war on Friday night.    Organisers claimed roughly double the numbers estimated by police attended yesterday's marches, saying up to 500,000 marched in Sydney.    Greens leader Bob Brown told the Sydney demonstrators they represented "the uplifting spirit of democracy" and urged Mr Howard to heed their protests.    In Brisbane, peace marchers drowned out Opposition Leader Simon Crean when he declared that Iraq had to be disarmed, but "we won't back any attack that doesn't have United Nations backing". Protesters shouted him down, calling: "No war, no war."    Labor's foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said Australia's proximity to Indonesia and South-East Asia made its national security interests radically different from those of Britain and the US. "Operating under a UN security mandate is the only sensible way to go," he said.    The Morgan poll reported yesterday that after a month dominated by the Iraq issue, Labor has swung back ahead of the Government, with its two-party vote soaring to 52.5 per cent, up from 47 per cent in November.    - with Caroline Overington, New York Visit the related web page
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