Millions Give
Dramatic Rebuff to US War Plans
Weekend protests worldwide by millions of anti-war activists delivered
a stinging rebuke to Washington and its allies on their hard-line advance
towards war.
Hundreds of thousands of
people turned out in the German capital Berlin on Saturday, joining
worldwide protests against possible U.S.-led military action in Iraq.
REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
The unprecedented wave of demonstrations, involving eight million to
11.5 million people, according to various estimates, further clouded
US war plans a day after they suffered a diplomatic setback at the United
Nations.
Significantly, some of the
biggest rallies were held in countries which have strongly supported
the pledge by US President George W. Bush to use force if necessary
to strip Iraq of suspected weapons of mass destruction.
In Sydney Sunday, Prime Minister
John Howard was greeted upon his return from a nine-day trip that took
him to the United States and Britain by the largest anti-war demonstration
ever seen in Australia.
An estimated 250,000 people
filled the streets of the antipodean nation's largest city, following
on from demonstrations that began Friday in Melbourne and cropped up
from Brisbane to Canberra.
A crowd estimated by organizers
to be three million-strong marched through Rome to condemn Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi's backing of Washington. More than five million people
turned out in separate demonstrations in Spain, protest leaders said.
Even Britain, the staunchest
US ally, saw at least 750,000 people tramp through London in the country's
biggest protest ever to give their government's stance the thumbs down.
Organizers put the figure at more than two million.
"If we don't stand up
and say no to Bush, he thinks he can do what he likes because he's got
the most powerful military and economy in the world," said Nick
Lobnitz, a 24-year-old Briton.
Demonstrators turned out
in droves Saturday in New York, where organizers expected more than
100,000 people as the focal point of the largest display so far of US
public opposition to an attack on Iraq.
The White House, which appears
to have been rattled by the surge in resistance to its calls for quick
military action, was low key in its response to Saturday's massive display
of pacifist feeling.
"The president is a
strong advocate of freedom and democracy, and one of the democratic
values that we hold dear is the right of the people to peaceably assemble
to express their views," said Jeanie Mamo, a spokeswoman.
Mamo also stressed that Bush
views the military option in Iraq "as a last resort. He still hopes
for a peaceful resolution, and that is up to (Iraqi President) Saddam
Hussein."
There were other signs the
US march toward war was losing steam, at least for the moment, after
most members of the UN Security Council urged Friday that UN weapons
inspectors be given more time to do their work in Iraq.
British Prime Minister Tony
Blair sounded a conciliatory note Saturday after a relatively upbeat
report issued by chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix on Iraqi cooperation
in his search for chemical and biological arms.
"There will be more
time given to inspections," and Blix will report back to the Security
Council on February 28, Blair told a Labour Party conference in Scotland.
But he added the crisis cannot be allowed to drag on forever.
A senior diplomat at the
United Nations in New York said an early Security Council vote on a
resolution to authorize the use of force against Iraq looked unlikely
after Friday's show of support for more inspections.
The diplomat, who asked not
to be named, acknowledged the anti-war camp was likely to gain more
support at an open council meeting scheduled for Tuesday, when non-members
will be allowed to take the floor.
Russian President Vladimir
Putin and the president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, also
voiced their support for UN weapons inspectors to continue their work
in Iraq.
Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf, who backed Bush in the war in Afghanistan, told him by telephone
Friday that a strike against Iraq is "not a good option,"
officials in Islamabad said Saturday.
From Baghdad, papal envoy
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray told Italian television after a two-hour meeting
with Saddam that the Iraqi leader felt "more relieved" after
Friday's report by the UN disarmament inspectors.
"He is doing everything
to avoid war," said Etchegaray, who brought Saddam a personal message
from Pope John Paul II. "He is the first to be concerned. He is
the first to be mobilizing all his energies to avoid war."
Saddam's deputy prime minister
Tareq Aziz, a Christian, spent Saturday morning in Assisi praying at
the tomb of St Francis as part of a peace ceremony organized by an Italian
Catholic Foundation outside the anti-war march.
Arab foreign ministers met
in Cairo to discuss the crisis. Egypt said an extraordinary Arab summit
on Iraq and the Palestinian question would be held at the Red Sea resort
of Sharm El-Sheikh in the week beginning February 22.
The United States has already
deployed some 150,000 troops in the Gulf region in anticipation of a
move against Iraq but is still trying to win the approval of Turkey
to use its soil to mount a northern front.
Turkey is seeking NATO's
assistance to prepare for possible reprisals by Iraq. But France, Belgium
and Germany sparked a crisis within the alliance by blocking such help
until the issue of a war against Baghdad was decided.
Diplomats in Brussels said
NATO ambassadors should reach a compromise in the dispute by Tuesday.
(Published on Sunday, February
16, 2003 by Agence France Presse )