February 24, 2003	Monday	Zul Hijjah 22, 1423

RABAT, Feb 23: Tens of thousands of people marched through the centre of the Moroccan capital Rabat on Sunday to protest at US threats to wage war on Iraq.

A separate demonstration against war in Iraq also went ahead in the town of Mohammedia, drawing around 5,000 protestors.

The protests come after a week in which the Moroccan press lambasted Arab countries for their relatively low turnout in global anti-war demonstrations on February 15. The February 15 protests drew millions onto the streets in Europe, Australia and the United States but only around 1,000 in Rabat.

On Sunday tens of thousands of Moroccans marched through Rabat chanting slogans condemning Washington and the “horse-trading” over Iraq being conducted with the United States by Arab nations and Turkey.

Organisers from the National Iraqi Support Committee — an umbrella group of political and union movements — said up to 100,000 people had taken part although observers said there appeared to be more like 25,000.

About half the marchers were from militant Islamic organisations such as Al Adl Wal Ihssane or were supporters of the main political opposition, Morocco’s own Justice and Development Party. Several Moroccan government ministers also took part in the march in the capital, along with a large number of parliamentarians.

CAIRO: Some 7,500 students demonstrated against US plans to wage a war on Iraq in Cairo and Alexandria, in the largest anti-war rallies here over the current crisis so far, organizers and police said.

Around 5,000 students demonstrated at their university campus in the northern Mediterranean city of Alexandria, shouting Islamist-style slogans such as “America is the enemy of God.”

Another 2,500 students gathered at Ain Shams University in eastern Cairo, shouting “America, we shall defy you,” “Iraq we shall sacrifice ourselves for you,” and “Iraqi: resist, resist.”

Earlier in the day, police prevented 3,000 Egyptian and Arab lawyers from venting their anger at the United States in the streets of the capital.

The lawyers, who were holding a conference, had decided to demonstrate in front of Arab League headquarters in central Cairo, but police did not let them leave the conference hall for several hours.

Nearly 5,000 students demonstrated Tuesday at Al-Azhar Islamic University in Cairo and another university in the northeastern city of Ismailiya, and 3,500 students and lecturers demonstrated on four Cairo college campuses Saturday.

Public demonstrations are prohibited in Egypt under the emergency laws in force since 1981, but are generally tolerated on university campuses and inside mosques.

BEIRUT: Christian dignitaries in a protest in this southern Lebanese city Sunday to show support for Iraq and the Palestinians.

The demonstration, organized by the Cultural Forum, which groups left-wing intellectuals and officials, denounced the Arab states for not doing more to prevent war in Iraq.

Nasser Hamdan, a representative of the group, told demonstrators “Arab regimes are responsible for what is happening in the region because they are not helping the Palestinian and Iraqi people.”

The demonstrators took a similar line: “Where are the Arab armies, where are the Arab leaders?” they shouted, amid a sea of Iraqi, Lebanese and Palestinian flags and portraits of Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein.

One banner called for the “formation of an Arab front to defend Iraq and Palestine,” while another warned “Iraq will be a cemetery for the invaders.”

An anti-war rally gathering some 10,000 Palestinians and Lebanese was held in Sidon, another coastal city further north, on Feb 18.

BAGHDAD: A group of mostly US anti-war activists announced Sunday plans to hold a protest fast at the demilitarized zone along Iraq’s borders with Kuwait where US troops are kept ready to advance.

“We will travel on Monday into the demilitarized zone along the Iraq-Kuwait border, across which over 90,000 US troops are ready to advance,” said Mike Ferner from the Iraq Peace Team (IPT).

“There we will pitch a tent and conduct a four-day fast to focus the eyes of the world on our message directed to US military personnel and to US citizens,” he said in a news conference.

MANILA: Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo prayed that Saddam Hussein would rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction as she led tens of thousands of Filipinos in the country’s biggest anti-war rally.

Unlike other speakers, who prayed US President George W. Bush would also avoid war, Arroyo — an ardent supporter of the US anti-terror campaign — did not mention the American leader.

Crowds estimated by police at 300,000 attended the prayer rally at Manila’s Rizal Park organised by two major Christian religious groups.

KATMANDU: Americans and other Westerners opposed to war in Iraq lighted 50,000 traditional butter lamps on Sunday at a famous Buddhist monastery near Katmandu in an appeal for peace. Up to 500 Americans, Australians, Britons and Canadians held a silent vigil under the eyes of a Buddha statue at the Baudhanath stupa, a Tibetan Buddhist shrine built more than 2,000 years ago.

“We are concerned, patriotic citizens of our respective countries residing in Nepal, and wish to register our profound misgivings about the course that our home governments have taken with regard to Iraq,” said US national Lisa Choegyal.

She said an attack on Iraq “without proof of an imminent threat to any of our countries and without the backing of the UN Security Council would be immoral and dangerously in contravention of international law and the UN Charter.”—Agencies