PARIS, April 12: Hundreds of thousands of opponents of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq held new anti-war protests Saturday, arguing that the regime’s collapse was no reason to let up the pressure.
Possibly the biggest European showing was half a million protesters on the streets of Rome, according to organisers.
In London, tens of thousands rallied even as the first British troops were set to pull out of the Gulf.
“It is clear the war is not over,” said Andrew Murray, chairman of Britain’s Stop the War Coalition: “There are still people being killed and we will also emphasize our opposition to occupation.”
In Paris, more than 10,000 rallied behind a banner: “Iraq to the Iraqis”.
In Rome, crowds originally reported at some 100,000 swelled to half a million according to unofficial estimates.
“The war is over in its most obvious form as a classic means of destruction,” said Fausto Bertinotti, Secretary-General of Italy’s Refounded Communist Party (PRC):
“But it continues as low intensity conflict and a strategic hypothesis of world domination by means of preventive war as conceived by (US President George W.) Bush.”
Italian pacifists with banners reading: “Stop Esso war,” demonstrated peacefully at gas stations of the American ExxonMobil oil group in protest at it getting a 48 million dollar contract to supply fuel to US military in Iraq.
American anti-war demonstrators carried placards reading: “Not in our name.”
One told Italian television: “We’re glad the Saddam Hussein regime has fallen, but it wasn’t necessary to impose this conflict and this humiliation on the Iraqis.”
In Florence, three parties in Italy’s government coalition paraded in support of US policy in line with government support for Washington, with banners reading: “The French are cowards.”
France has strongly opposed intervention in Iraq.
In Paris, banners read: “Stop the occupation of Iraq” and “Yes to a democratic and independent Iraq.” Protesters chanted “US go home!”
“We’re very glad to be rid of Saddam, but we don’t trust the Americans,” said Mazin Yassine from Baghdad: “...We don’t want a new dictator.”
Three men were arrested for possessing anti-Semitic placards inciting to racial hatred, police said.
In Berlin anti-war protesters carried a banner reading “Peace before occupation” to the Brandenburg Gate, once the symbol of the division of Germany and Europe.
Police put the turnout at some 15,000. A group of exiled Kurds celebrated Saddam Hussein’s overthrow. In London tens of thousands rallied in anger against Prime Minister Tony Blair’s support for Bush.
Carrying pictures of war victims and placards reading: “No occupation, No War,” the crowd chanted: “Blair calls it liberation, it looks to us like occupation.”
With coalition forces in control of much of Iraq, Britain announced Friday it would start to draw down its forces in the Gulf.
Protesters held a minute’s silence in Parliament Square at the Houses of Parliament.
Police estimated the throng at 20,000 although the organisers, the Stop the War Coalition, an umbrella group for Britain’s anti-war organisations, claimed there were in excess of 100,000 on the march.
British film director Ken Loach said: “We have to stop the occupation. This is illegal. This is against international law.”
Kate Hudson, vice-chairwoman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), said the march was a response to the fact that the war was continuing, people were being killed and illegal weapons such as cluster bombs were still in the field.
Saturday’s march is the third held in London in recent weeks over the Iraqi conflict. On February 15, more than one million people took to the streets and on March 22 between 200,000 and 700,000 protested.
In the Spanish city of Barcelona, tens of thousands took to the streets, according to unofficial estimates.
They chanted “Aznar resign!” in protest at Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar’s support for the American line on Iraq despite its rejection by the vast majority of the Spanish public.
A Spanish television cameraman and special correspondent of the newspaper El Mundo were among journalists killed in Iraq.
The scene was different in Kuwait City — invaded by Saddam Hussein’s troops in 1990 — where demonstrators expressed gratitude for the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime. —AFP
PARIS, April 12: Hundreds of thousands of opponents of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq held new anti-war protests Saturday, arguing that the regime’s collapse was no reason to let up the pressure.
