March 21, 2003	Friday	Muharram 17, 1424

ATHENS, March 20: Anti-war protests gathered pace across the globe on Thursday following the start of the US-led invasion of Iraq, with hundreds of thousands marching to demand a quick end to air strikes on Baghdad.

Some 150,000 demonstrators, many of them high school students, thronged central Athens in response to the launch of targeted strikes against Iraqi targets, according to police estimates, while organisers put the figure at at least 200,000.

The protestors chanted “Bush — killer” as they filed towards the US embassy, condemning President George W. Bush for attempting to disarm Iraq and topple President Saddam Hussein by force.

Millions have marched to oppose the war in past weekends, dogging world leaders that have backed Bush’s campaign, like prime ministers Tony Blair of Britain, Jose Maria Aznar of Spain and Silvio Berlusconi of Italy.

A demonstration in Ankara turned ugly when a group of peace activists disobeyed police orders to disperse after laying a black wreath outside the US embassy. Demonstrators hurled eggs and stones at security forces, who in turn responded with truncheons.

In Egypt, eight people were injured in clashes as thousands of people defied a government ban and rallied on the streets and on university campuses.

At least one Spanish peace protester was injured in clashes with police in central Madrid, where 5,000 people, most of them students, tried to march on the parliament to voice their disapproval of their government’s support for the war. In Barcelona, some 12,000 youthful protestors staged a blockade on the main highway leading to France, while a group of anti-war activists handed parliament a petition signed by some 1.2 million people opposed to their government’s backing for the war.

Several thousand French students left their classrooms to march through central Paris, before heading to the central Place de la Concorde, beside the US embassy, where a reporter estimated that at least 70,000 protestors had gathered.

At least 50,000 students in Berlin peacefully marched toward the US embassy, carrying placards reading “Give peace a chance”. Peace groups said some 250 protests would be staged in Germany throughout the day.

Thousands more students streamed out of classrooms across Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland and Spain, with Swiss schoolchildren carrying the rainbow-striped flags which have become a symbol for peace in Europe.

In Italy, where public opinion is strongly at odds with the official support for the US action, the main unions called a two-hour general strike. A demonstration in the business capital Milan drew 15,000 pacifists according to police. In Rome, a torchlight procession was later expected to make its way to a peace rally at the Coliseum.

Several hundred youthful opponents descended on London’s Parliament Square, spearheading protests up and down the country against a “day of shame.”

“One, two, three, four, we don’t want your bloody war! Five, six, seven, eight, stop the killing, stop the hate!” one group of children chanted, borrowing a slogan from Vietnam war days.

Britain’s Stop The War Coalition called for a national walkout by workers and students, urged to rally in city centers at 1800 GMT.

Portuguese peace activists planned to shroud the walls of an emblematic castle that towers over central Lisbon with a white sheet to protest the launch of US-led war against Iraq.

In Russia, 200 Communists and ultra-nationalists — confronted by three times as many police — marched to cries of “Yankee go home” and “No to war”. The day of anti-war protest kicked off with angry anti-US demonstrations in Pakistan, Indonesia and Taiwan and spirited marches in Australia.

“US, please explain, why did you install Hussein?” chanted a crowd of some 20,000 protesters marching through Melbourne, Australia’s second biggest city.

A crowd of more than 12,000 people chanting “No War, No War” marched through central Sydney, where 300,000 protestors rallied against the looming war last month.

SAN FRANCISCO: Hundreds of anti-war activists were arrested in San Francisco on Thursday as they struggled with police at the start of a major civil disobedience campaign to protest the US invasion of Iraq.

An estimated 1,000-plus chanting protesters blocked streets here on the first day of the US-led attack.

“Stop the bombing” and “No war for oil”, chanted protesters as they lay down in intersections, tied themselves to telegraph polls or bound themselves together with plastic cable to avoid arrest.

The campaign of civil disobedience was being touted by organizers — a coalition of peace groups — as one of the largest such actions in US history and coincided with more than 300 protests planned across the country.—AFP