Global anti-war demonstrations gain momentum

9.45am

LONDON - Protesters massed in London today to denounce British involvement in the Iraq war, as emotional anti-war demonstrators filled city streets across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Demanding "Blair Out!" and "Bring Our Boys Home!," placard waving demonstrators gathered peacefully in central London's Hyde Park to put pressure on British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government, as new explosions rocked Baghdad.

"I think Blair has gone totally against the wishes of the British people," said protester Rick Edwards, out with his eight-year-old daughter for a rally that organisers said swelled to at least 250,000 people, but which police put at only "upwards of 60,000."

Blair's commitment of 45,000 British troops alongside nearly a quarter of a million American forces for a war without UN blessing has divided Britain and put Blair in political peril.

Protesters marched, mostly peacefully, to condemn the war in other European cities including Berlin, Paris, Madrid, Lisbon, Stockholm, Helsinki, Amsterdam and Berne.

But in the Middle East, anger at the war and its potential to destabilise the region was very near the surface as thousands of Arabs protested for a third day.

With live footage of explosions and burning buildings in Iraq beamed into most Arab homes, emotions were high over what many consider a sinister plan to dominate the Arab world.

"Did you see all those bombs falling on TV? All the poor people? And for what? America wants to subjugate the entire region for the sake of Israel. They want to bring the Arabs to their knees," 50-year-old Egyptian housewife Samia said.

In Egypt, the region's most populous country with almost 70 million people, thousands of students staged anti-war rallies at universities amid tight police security.

"Bush is the new Hitler of this century. He won't stop until he has control of all Arab lands," one Omani student said.

While most Arabs have little time for Saddam Hussein, some 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza marched through the streets holding pictures of the Iraqi president. "We are with you Saddam Hussein and the people of Iraq," they chanted.

Police in the northwest African country of Mauritania fired tear gas to disperse thousands of anti-war protesters, who poured onto the streets of the capital Noukchott chanting "Bush is a butcher" after Friday Muslim prayers at the city's mosques.

In France and Germany, whose governments have opposed the war, demonstrators were out in force. In Paris, Palestinian and Kurdish supporters joined anti-war activists, students and left wing parties in street protests numbering some 80,000 people.

Across France anti-war demonstrations drew thousands more, prompting a massive police operation.

Shouting "Bush, Blair stop la guerre" (Bush, Blair stop the war) and some carrying banners saying "Yankee, go home," several thousand protesters headed toward the Place de la Nation in eastern Paris escorted police.

In Germany some 100,000 took to the streets, including some 40,000 in Berlin where demonstrators marched near the American embassy and shouted demands to end the conflict.

Skirmishes broke out between demonstrators and police outside a U.S. military base in Stuttgart, where 800 protesters gathered. Police used truncheons to remove some sit-down strikers in front of the U.S. European command headquarters.

In Germany's financial capital Frankfurt some 18,000 Kurds from across Europe rallied to protest the war and demand a free Kurdistan. Thousands of anti-war protesters filled the streets in Heidelberg, Mannheim, Cologne and Duesseldorf.

MARCH ON U.S. EMBASSIES

In Lisbon, three former Portuguese prime ministers attended the start of an anti-war demonstration that police estimated to number 35,000.

In Vienna, a city of 1.6 million, about 25,000 marched against the war, past the U.S. and British embassies, police said. In Amsterdam, some 20,000 marched on the U.S. consulate.

In northern Switzerland, a young Iraqi boy waving a sign saying "No War" threatened to kill himself by jumping off a bridge on to the road below, but was brought to safety with the help of an Arabic-speaking passer-by, police said.

People in Nordic countries also came out against the war, with an unprecedented demonstration of 20,000 in Finland, including families with baby strollers. Some 30,000 hit the streets in militarily non-aligned Sweden.

"I wanted to show my kid you can really do something about this kind of thing," said Finnish copyist Taija Malinen, 45, out with her eight-year-old son. "Without UN approval this is a crime. And (George W.) Bush should be sued about this."

In Oslo, Norwegian police said they used tear gas to fight off 200 anti-war demonstrators throwing rocks and eggs outside the U.S. embassy. One injured officer went to hospital.

In traditionally neutral Ireland, where debate has raged over the U.S. military's use of Shannon airport, some 20,000 joined a march through the capital Dublin, organisers estimated.

MUSLIMS IN ASIA CONDEMN U.S.

Earlier, Muslims across Asia staged peaceful anti-war rallies, voicing anger against the United States.

About 2,000 protesters rallied outside the heavily fortified U.S. embassy in Indonesia's capital Jakarta, shouting anti-U.S. slogans before marching to the UN office a few blocks away.

In neighbouring Malaysia, about 8,000 people shouted "Destroy America" as they took part in a "peace run" in eastern Kelantan state. In Bangladesh, protesters burned American flags and called a half-day general strike in the capital Dhaka. There were no reports of violence.

Several thousand people also protested in New Zealand and Australia, which has deployed around 2,000 troops to the Gulf.

More than 15,000 Muslims rallied in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta, and nearly 5,000 men and women marched to the U.S. embassy in New Delhi. Some carried bottles they said contained blood and gasoline, shouting: "Take this, this is what you want, and stop attacking Iraq."

In South Korea, some 3,000 gathered in Seoul to protest against the war and their government's decision to send up to 700 non-combat troops to assist it.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq