October 14, 2002	Monday	Sha'aban 7, 1423

MELBOURNE, Oct 13: More than 30,000 people marched through the streets of Australia’s second biggest city on Sunday in the country’s largest protest to date against any US-led attack on Iraq, organizers said.

Speakers at the rally said the car bombing in Bali which killed more than 180 people — many of them Australians — just hours earlier, reinforced the need to find non-violent means to resolve conflicts.

Local union leader Leigh Hubbard said the need for peace was never more evident than following the car bombing in Bali and he rejected plans by US President George W. Bush to launch an attack on Iraq to rid it of suspected weapons of mass destruction.

“This attack will be a slaughter and a war crime regardless of whether or not it has United Nations backing,” Hubbard said.

“It’s not about weapons of mass destruction, it’s not about human rights. It’s about strategic interests, it’s about oil,” he said.—AFP