More Protests Demand Halt to Military Action in Iraq |
A global wave of protests against the US-led war on Iraq continued for the eighth consecutive day with thousands of people expressing their anger and rejection of the campaign unleashed last Thursday.
A demonstration held by schoolchildren in central Sydney, Australia, to protest the war on Iraq turned violent when the students threw plastic chairs, bottles and eggs and smashed street signs.
"There are school teachers that are idiots, who think the war is nothing. But the war is everything to us and we believe the war should stop," one of several thousand protesters said angrily.
Several children grappled with the police when they were denied access to march through the city centre. But the police finally relented and allowed the students to march down George Street, a business district, bringing traffic to a standstill.
Student protesters in Sydney attempting to burn a US flag during an anti-war demonstration. "So America has made this war up for oil and so they can put a puppet they can control and get," a male student said. "They want Iraqi oil, that's all they want. And they are going to kill Iraqi people," he added. "I've seen babies, when I see them I cry, I think of this war."
One placard read: "We are ready to fight, world peace is our right." Other students, who took part in a rally by school children earlier this month, said they were embarrassed the protest had turned violent.
A poll survey published at the weekend showed that support for Australian involvement in the war had grown to 45 percent, up from 25 percent just over a week ago, with 47 percent continuing to oppose the war.
Australia sent around 2,000 military personnel to the Gulf including warplanes, warships and 150 special forces troops now involved in fighting inside Iraq.
In Washington, police arrested two Nobel peace prize winners along with more than 60 other people, including religious leaders, who were protesting against the war near the White House.
Police handcuffed Mairead Corrigan Maguire, who won the peace prize in 1976 for peace activism in the Northern Ireland conflict, and Jody Williams, who received the prize in 1997 for her work to ban landmines, after they refused to leave Lafayette Park, opposite the home of the US president.
"This is what our democracy looks like," Williams shouted to reporters as she was led away into a police van.
Just before the arrests, the protesters chanted "Peace, Shalom" as they held roses and posters of civilian casualties from the war. But a spokesman for the US Parks Police said that nine people had been arrested for crossing a police line opposite the White House and that others were detained for protesting without a permit.
"We expect them all to be released within a couple of hours," he said. South Korean police remove a protester from the front gates of the National Assembly building during an anti-war demonstration
In Bahrain, around 300 Bahraini intellectuals and artists held a demonstration outside the UN headquarters in the capital Manama in protest of the bombing campaign against Iraq.
The demonstrators carried banners denouncing the war and calling for a halt to the military action.
Over the past week, protestors have clashed with the police near the US and British embassies. Other anti-war protests were held in Indonesia, Spain, Pakistan, Bengladesh, Syria, Lebanon, Russia.
Thursday 03, April, 2003
A demonstration held by schoolchildren in central Sydney, Australia, to protest the war on Iraq turned violent when the students threw plastic chairs, bottles and eggs and smashed street signs.
"There are school teachers that are idiots, who think the war is nothing. But the war is everything to us and we believe the war should stop," one of several thousand protesters said angrily.
Several children grappled with the police when they were denied access to march through the city centre. But the police finally relented and allowed the students to march down George Street, a business district, bringing traffic to a standstill.
Student protesters in Sydney attempting to burn a US flag during an anti-war demonstration. "So America has made this war up for oil and so they can put a puppet they can control and get," a male student said. "They want Iraqi oil, that's all they want. And they are going to kill Iraqi people," he added. "I've seen babies, when I see them I cry, I think of this war."
One placard read: "We are ready to fight, world peace is our right." Other students, who took part in a rally by school children earlier this month, said they were embarrassed the protest had turned violent.
A poll survey published at the weekend showed that support for Australian involvement in the war had grown to 45 percent, up from 25 percent just over a week ago, with 47 percent continuing to oppose the war.
Australia sent around 2,000 military personnel to the Gulf including warplanes, warships and 150 special forces troops now involved in fighting inside Iraq.
In Washington, police arrested two Nobel peace prize winners along with more than 60 other people, including religious leaders, who were protesting against the war near the White House.
Police handcuffed Mairead Corrigan Maguire, who won the peace prize in 1976 for peace activism in the Northern Ireland conflict, and Jody Williams, who received the prize in 1997 for her work to ban landmines, after they refused to leave Lafayette Park, opposite the home of the US president.
"This is what our democracy looks like," Williams shouted to reporters as she was led away into a police van.
Just before the arrests, the protesters chanted "Peace, Shalom" as they held roses and posters of civilian casualties from the war. But a spokesman for the US Parks Police said that nine people had been arrested for crossing a police line opposite the White House and that others were detained for protesting without a permit.
"We expect them all to be released within a couple of hours," he said. South Korean police remove a protester from the front gates of the National Assembly building during an anti-war demonstration
In Bahrain, around 300 Bahraini intellectuals and artists held a demonstration outside the UN headquarters in the capital Manama in protest of the bombing campaign against Iraq.
The demonstrators carried banners denouncing the war and calling for a halt to the military action.
Over the past week, protestors have clashed with the police near the US and British embassies. Other anti-war protests were held in Indonesia, Spain, Pakistan, Bengladesh, Syria, Lebanon, Russia.
Thursday 03, April, 2003