Peace activists, including journalists, doctors, lawyers, labour leaders, politicians, students and representatives of various NGOs, took part in a peace march which commenced from the Karachi Press Club. It was organized by the Citizens’ Committee against War.
Carrying banners and placards inscribed with anti-war slogans and condemning President George Bush’s policy on Iraq, they marched on Abdullah Haroon Road and Zaibunnisa Street before returning to the KPC.
“We want peace, not war”, “American policy is a threat to world peace and humanity”, “Bush is pushing humanity towards destruction” and “US policy is the worst kind of terrorism,” were among the slogans heard during the procession.
Expressing “fraternal feelings” with all peace-loving people, the participants affirmed that protest meetings and rallies against violence in all forms and against war would continue, and it was announced that a peace rally would be held on Feb 28 at the KPC to express solidarity with the people of Iraq.
Participants of the rally, held under the aegis of the Pen for Peace, Progressive Writers Association, Aurat Foundation, Women Action Forum, National Youth League, Pakistan Labour Party, National Workers Party, Karachi Union of Journalists, and other NGOs and representative bodies, adopted a resolution that recorded “profound condemnation of the bellicose approach of the US administration” against Iraq.
“George Bush, Colin Powell and others — who have emerged as a pack of frenzied war-mongers — have shown scant respect for world public opinion, which stands for peace,” they said.
The participants also said the “American government seems determined to plunder the Middle East and its material resources. Even the UN weapons inspectors’ statment that no weapon of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, has not convinced the imperialists to desist from their inimical designs.
“The latest statement of Muhamed ElBaradei, chief of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency to the UN Security Council, that ‘we have, to date found no evidence of ongoing prohibited nuclear related activities in Iraq,’ was a slap on the face of the imperialists,” the resolution said.
The rally noted that recent events had exposed the real designs of the US which was to dominate Afghanistan and the resources of the region after removing the Taliban government. Use of brute military force had become necessary for the US amid economic recession.
Some of the participants also called upon Pakistani rulers to learn lessons from the events leading to the Iraq crisis and stop playing second fiddle to the vested economic and military interests of the US.
Over 22 million Iraqis have already suffered immense collateral damage since America’s first attack on Iraq in 1991. During that war alone 3,500 civilians were killed and 111,000 civilians later died of the effects of war and sanctions, 70,000 of whom were under 15 years. The total death toll was estimated at over 205,000, 70 per cent of whom were civilians.
Participants also burnt an effigy of President Bush to give vent to their feelings.