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Global anti-war demos as bombs fall near Baghdad
( 2003-03-23 09:22 ) (7 )

Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States on Saturday in mass demonstrations against the US-led war on Iraq.

Some 200,000 protesters massed in London, waving placards demanding "Blair Out!" and "Bring Our Boys Home!" 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 police said involved 200,000 people.

Blair's commitment of 45,000 British troops alongside nearly a quarter of a million US forces for a war without U.N. blessing has divided Britain.

In US cities, tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators also took to the streets. Marchers stretched three miles down Broadway in New York City, chanting "No Blood for Oil." Unofficial estimates put the crowd at 150,000 to 250,000.

"It's the wrong war at the wrong time in the wrong place," said New York City schoolteacher David Gurowsky.

A few hundred people rallied in Washington, D.C., while in Chicago, up to 700 people marched to support the conflict.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched, mostly peacefully, to condemn the war in scores of European cities including Berlin, Paris, Rome, Lisbon, Helsinki, and Brussels.

But in Madrid, an anti-war protest of more than 100,000 people reached a tense stand-off on Saturday night. Police in riot gear charged crowds and fired rubber bullets to cut short the demonstration, while protesters smashed a bus shelter and phone boxes. Several people were injured, witnesses said.

BERNE RALLY TURNS UGLY

A peaceful rally of 30,000 people in the Swiss capital Berne also turned ugly when hundreds of masked protesters from the anarchist Black Block broke police barricades, hurled stones and bottles at police and burned the US flag. Police used water cannon to disperse them.

In the Middle East, anger at the war and its potential to destabilize 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.

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.

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.

"YANKEE, GO HOME"

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

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

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

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.

An unprecedented demonstration of 20,000 was held in Finland, including families with baby strollers.

"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 U.N. approval this is a crime. And (George W.) Bush should be sued about this."

Tens of thousands of people joined protests in Italian cities, as well as Vienna, Amsterdam, Oslo, Stockholm, Dublin, and even Ljubljana, Slovenia, in eastern Europe.

MUSLIMS RALLY ACROSS ASIA

Earlier, Muslims across Asia staged peaceful anti-war rallies, voicing anger against the United States. There were protests involving several thousands in Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand and in Australia, which has deployed troops to the Gulf.

In Bangladesh, protesters burned American flags and called a half-day general strike in the capital Dhaka. More than 15,000 Muslims rallied in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta, and nearly 5,000 men and women marched in the capital New Delhi.

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.