Iraq war doves in droves worldwide, hawks flock in North America

<a href=www.canada.com>Canadian Press Saturday, March 29, 2003

BERLIN (CP) - Anti-war demonstrators turned out in the hundreds of thousands from South Korea to Chile on Saturday, spattering streets with paint, jeering outside U.S. embassies and in one case forming a 50-kilometre human chain, while U.S. and Canadian cities saw smaller rallies supporting the invasion of Iraq.

Chanting: "America imperialist, No 1 terrorist!" tens of thousands of protesters in Indonesia marched on the U.S. Embassy on Sunday in what appeared to be the country's largest anti-war demonstration to date.

The protesters - many dressed in traditional Muslim attire and representing the country's largest Islamic groups - numbered about 100,000, witnesses said.

They chanted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great," and wore headbands reading: Peace, No War. One banner read: "Bush, Iraq is not your killing field."

The event was organized by the Indonesian Committee in Solidarity with Iraqi People.

The crowd gathered in front of the British Embassy in central Jakarta early Sunday and marched peacefully to the United Nations office before heading to the U.S. Embassy about one kilometres away. Flanked by more than 1,500 police officers, the protesters slowed traffic but otherwise caused no problems.

More than 100,000 people protested in strongly anti-war Germany on Saturday, half of them at a rally in Berlin, where banners in the crowd read: Stop America's Terror. About 30,000 people held hands along the 50 kilometres between the northwestern German cities Muenster and Osnabrueck - a route used by negotiators who brought the Thirty Years War to an end in 1648.

Hundreds of women, some carrying placards declaring: The United States and Britain are the Axis of Evil, protested in Sana, capital of Yemen. Elsewhere in the Arab world, 10,000 turned out at a rally organized by Egypt's governing party in Port Said, and in Jordan's capital Amman, more than 3,000 people demanded the kingdom's government expel U.S. troops.

In Stuttgart, Germany, about 6,000 protesters encircled the U.S. military's European Command, releasing blue balloons adorned with white doves as they joined hands to form a chain.

Farther north, police detained 100 demonstrators taking part in a sit-down protest outside the main gate of the Rhine-Main Air Base near Frankfurt, a key transit point for U.S. military traffic to the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan.

Protesters in Rome hung black mourning banners from the city's bridges. At Vicenza, in northeastern Italy, demonstrators threw red paint and flares at the walls of a U.S. military base where hundreds of paratroopers now in northern Iraq had been based.

In the Greek capital Athens, 15,000 people chanting: "We'll stop the war" marched to the U.S. Embassy. Protesters splashed red paint on the road outside the building and on the windows of a McDonald's restaurant.

In the United States, thousands of flag-waving war supporters packed the steps of the Pennsylvania Capitol building in Harrisburg. Police said about 8,000 people showed up but organizers put the number at 12,000.

A rally in Cape Cod, Mass., supporting U.S. troops drew about 2,000 and in Miami, thousands of Cuban exiles and others marched to support the U.S. military and to oppose opening relations with Cuba.

In San Francisco, where two days of anti-war demonstrations led to about 2,200 arrests in the days after the war began, a few hundred people gathered Saturday near City Hall to show support for the troops.

In Boston, 15,000 nuns, veterans, students and other anti-war protesters collapsed on a city streets in a "die in" to show their opposition to the war. Hundreds also rallied in New York City and a South Central Los Angeles neighbourhood where Linda Bolton urged the U.S. government to look at problems closer to home.

"Leave those Iraqis alone and come over and take care of business here first," said Bolton, 48.

"Look right here how many people in South Central are dying every day. Clean up here first before you clean up someone else's home."

In Manhattan, where an estimated 125,000 to 250,000 people protested against the war last weekend, several hundred staged a Times Square anti-war rally, while throwing in a wide array of other causes - from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to abortion rights.

Dmitri Bronovitsky held a placard combining the Palestinian and Iraqi flags that read: One Tragedy.

Braving chilly wind and rain, 4,000 rallied on Parliament Hill in Ottawa to cheer on U.S. forces and boo Canada's decision to remain on the sidelines.

As a counterpoint to the pro-U.S. rally not far away, about 400 peace demonstrators peacefully marched through the downtown streets to the U.S. Embassy.

At least two rallies on the Prairies also supported U.S. efforts in Iraq. About 200 demonstrators, many carrying U.S. flags and signs critical of Chretien, gathered in front of the Manitoba legislature.

A few anti-war protesters showed up which triggered a brief shouting match.

It was a larger crowd in the central Alberta city of Red Deer where more than 600 people rallied outside City Hall. The demonstators also carried U.S. flags and placards with slogans such as Peace Is For Pussies and We Love Our American Cousins.

In Halifax, about 1,000 marched to call for peace.

Barbed-wire roadblocks and riot police kept thousands of Bangladeshi protesters away from the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka. The demonstrators burned a U.S. flag and an effigy of President George W. Bush.

Police in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, used tear gas to break up a protest outside the Australian Embassy, whose country has about 2,000 soldiers in the coalition.

Students in South Korea's capital Seoul scuffled with riot police as thousands marched down half of an eight-lane boulevard chanting: "Stop the bombing! Stop the killing!"

The mood was more subdued in Britain, where public sentiment had been strongly against the government's participation in the U.S.-led coalition before the outbreak of fighting but appears to be swinging. A MORI poll released Friday put Prime Minister Tony Blair's popularity rating at its highest level in nine months.

Turnout at a series of British rallies was a tiny fraction of protests before the war. Still, activists said they will keep marching to demand Blair pull British troops out of Iraq.

"We didn't stop the war starting but we can still stop its progress. I think this is going to become the next Vietnam," said Rebecca Mordan, 26, an actress who took part in a rally of about 100 people in London.

Poland, which committed up to 200 soldiers to the war, saw its largest demonstration yet. Two thousand mostly young people marched to the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, banging drums and chanting: "No blood for oil." They called President Aleksander Kwasniewski and Prime Minister Leszek Miller "Bush's two dogs."

In Hungary, another country whose government has supported the war, about 2,000 people whistled and jeered as they marched past the U.S. and British embassies in Budapest on their way to parliament.

A crowd estimated at 6,000 people demonstrated in front of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

More than 10,000 people marched in Paris, watched by 5,000 police. The demonstration turned violent when about 20 youths attacked a couple angry about protesters carrying posters of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Both were treated for bruises by rescue workers.

Around 8,000 people marched in Dublin to criticize the Irish government's decision to let U.S. forces bound for Iraq use the country's Shannon Airport for refuelling and stopovers.

In Santiago, Chile, more than 3,000 people staged a peaceful march and in Caracas, Venezuela, about 100 people called for an end to the war.