Protestors shift their focus to anti-occupation
The war may have clearly been won by the Anglo-American forces, but demonstrations against and for war have continued well into the second week of April.
Massive protests are planned throughout the United States this coming weekend calling for an end to the US-led war. “Only now the focus is, ‘No’ to colonial occupation,” said Sara Flounders, co-director of the New York-based International Action Centre. US peace activists are concerned about the prospect of a lengthy military occupation in Iraq.
Flounders said that protests are planned in various cities throughout America and in 40 other countries around the world including Britain, Italy, Japan, and Korea.
-Brazilian students carry a US flag painted with a swastika in the reflecting-pool of the Brazilian National Congress during anti-war protest in Brasilia, April 9, 2003. Hundreds of demonstrators participated in a rally against the war in Iraq.
The man chosen to run an interim Iraqi government, Jay Garner, has worried many due to his extremely close ties to conservative Jewish groups. He is a three-star general and a personal friend of US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld.
A website, stopjaygarner.com, is dedicated to opposing his appointment to run Iraq, calling him, “just the man to inflame Iraq and the region.”
Madrid also took part in large demonstrations against US actions in Iraq. 50,000 people took part in protests, waving banners that read, “Against the imperialist war.”
Another 30,000 people walked the streets of the Mediterranean city of Barcelona chanting, “Not a soldier, not a euro, not a bullet for this war.”
Nearly 600 journalists in Greece marched to the US embassy protesting the war and the deaths it has caused among colleagues in the media. Protestors chanted, “Americans, murderers of reporters.”
Organisers of a book fair in Athens have barred Britain from participating due to its participation in the war on Iraq. Representatives from the Athens Publishers’ and Booksellers’ Association said that instead, the popular annual event would be dedicated to anti-war books.
Pro-war demo
In contrast to the many anti-war/anti-occupation demonstrations around the world, thousands of pro-war demonstrators gathered on Thursday at New York’s “Ground Zero” to show support for US troops in Iraq.
Although there is no link between Saddam Hussein and the terrorists of 11 September, organisers of the rally said they chose the site of the World Trade Centre to reflect the belief among many Americans about Iraq's involvement in the attacks of 2001.
The same day also saw the New York Police Department make a startling admission. Police admitted to having kept and then destroyed a database of people arrested during anti-war protests.
Civil rights groups and denounced the practice as an infringement on personal liberties. Police said they would continue to record the names of organisations, rather than individuals, in order to help decide how many police officers are to be assigned to each demonstration. --- Al Jazeera with agency inputs |
