120,000 in march for peace
By Jane Metlikovec 15feb03
MORE than 120,000 people marched through Melbourne streets yesterday, urging Prime Minister John Howard not to join US President George W. Bush in a war on Iraq.
The Swanston St protest was one of the biggest Melbourne has seen in recent years.
About 100,000 people rallied in the city more than a decade ago against the Kennett government's industrial reforms.
Yesterday people of all ages including children, families, teenagers and the elderly joined the peace rally.
Police said the massive crowd was well behaved.
"There was no trouble or arrests, everything went well," a police spokeswoman said.
Entertainers Peter Garrett and Mark Seymour, MPs including Natasha Stott Despoja, and Greens leader Bob Brown, led the crowd as they spoke out against Mr Howard's support for war.
"The Prime Minister can't ignore this," Senator Stott Despoja said.
"How dare he disregard the public will.
"We Australians are unequivocally opposed to war under any sanction, UN or not," she said.
One of the biggest cheers came for Senator Brown, who urged the crowd to fight what he called Mr Howard's "imposing holocaust".
"The Prime Minister has never been given a mandate by the people of Australia to go to war," Senator Brown said.
"This is President Bush's war, this is Prime Minister Blair's war, this is John Howard's war, but this is not Australia's war."
One of the protest organisers, Patty Gorritty, said the turnout was amazing.
"It's fantastic, and one of the biggest things to happen here in Melbourne," Mr Gorritty said.
"I've been organising rallies for over 12 years, and I have never seen anything as big as this."
The colourful crowd included a clown on stilts, dressed in America's red, white and blue.
He held two toy guns, and was covered in make-believe blood.
More peaceful symbols included 60 large paper doves, and more than 200 origami cranes.
"It's important for people to remember the beauty of peace," said Margie Mackay, the artist responsible for the doves.
"The cranes are the same as those the people of Hiroshima released after they were bombed in World War II. We want this to be a reminder," she said.
Banners and T-shirts that read "No War", "No War on Iraq – No Australian Involvement", and "This Is Not Our War", were scattered through the crowd.
The protest follows a long line of rallies in Victoria. In November 1992 more than 100,000 people turned out to fight then premier Jeff Kennett's industrial reforms.
In May 1970 more than 70,000 people protested against the Vietnam War.
Yesterday's protest was radically different from the September 2000 rally against the World Economic Forum at Crown casino.
In that rally more than 10,000 protesters were involved in violent behaviour. Many police were injured.
Protesters have also triggered a Department of Foreign Affairs warning that Australians wanting to be human shields in Iraq might not be rescued if they change their mind at the last moment.
"Our ability to assist in those circumstances would be very, very limited and that is a point we need to reinforce," an official told a Senate estimates committee yesterday.
Former political adviser to the New South Wales Government Donna Mulhearn has left Australia to join other human shields.
Australians in Iraq with the United Nations would be covered by evacuation plans in the event of military conflict, the department's official said |
