South Africans March in Protest of Bush
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:52 a.m. ET
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP)-- About 1,000 demonstrators marched peacefully to the U.S. Embassy Wednesday, protesting President Bush's war in Iraq and trip to Africa.
``We stand together with millions of people throughout the world and say that the biggest weapon of mass destruction is George W. Bush,'' Salim Valley of the Anti-War Coalition said in a speech.
About two dozen police officers and a handful of embassy employees looked on as demonstrators burned several small American flags emblazoned with slogans against Bush, who was visiting South Africa Wednesday as part of his five-day, five-nation Africa tour.
The demonstration brought together a wide variety of groups including the Anti-War Coalition, members of the governing African National Congress, the South African Communist Party, trade unions, civil society groups and members of a militant black organization.
Anti-American sentiment has been growing in South Africa since the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The country has a large Muslim minority and many here believe Washington defied the United Nations and overstated its reasons for war.
Former President Nelson Mandela, the popular leader and hero of the anti-apartheid struggle, has harshly criticized Bush for going to war without a U.N. mandate.
Dennis Brutus, a former political prisoner of apartheid, led the crowd Wednesday with chants of ``down with Bush.''
Earlier, about 100 supporters of the political opposition in Zimbabwe also demonstrated near the embassy, calling on the Bush administration to put more pressure on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to restore democracy in that country.
``We don't want it to be left open-ended. We need to see a definite road map,'' said Moses Mzila Ndlovu, the opposition Movement for Democratic change's shadow foreign minister.
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