Protesters March in New York, Europe Against Iraq War
Originally published by Bloomberg
March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Protesters marched in New York, London and other cities around the world to denounce the U.S.-led military occupation of Iraq on the first anniversary of the war that ousted Saddam Hussein from power in Baghdad.
A Madison Avenue rally and 19-block march through midtown Manhattan drew an estimated 36,000 protesters, said Detective John Sweeney, a police spokesman. Thousands more turned out in London, Seoul, Tokyo and Australia. Additional protests were planned in Europe and 245 U.S. cities, according to United for Peace and Justice, a New York-based anti-war coalition.
The protesters want ``a new direction for America'' that starts ``with getting out of Iraq, bringing in UN peacekeepers and bringing our troops home,'' said U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat who addressed the New York rally. Kucinich, 57, sought the Democratic presidential nomination, which was clinched this week by Senator John Kerry, 60.
President George W. Bush's conduct of the war and the fight against terrorism has become a top U.S. campaign issue. In Europe, opposition to the war was fueled by last week's bombings of Madrid trains, which killed 202 people. The attack was claimed by a group saying it is part of al-Qaeda.
``I'm here to demand peace, and that our soldiers be pulled out of Iraq,'' said Aldo Michelotti, a 79-year-old retiree at a march in Rome. ``Otherwise we'll end up like Spain.''
Bush Vow
Bush, 57, in his weekly radio address today, said, ``Whatever it takes, we will fight and work to assure the success of freedom in Iraq.'' In a speech yesterday, Bush said, ``There is no neutral ground between good and evil.''
For anti-war groups and New York police, today's Manhattan demonstration provided a test of cooperation for protests planned at the Republican National Convention, scheduled for Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 at Madison Square Garden, where Bush is to be formally nominated for a second term.
There were no arrests as of 3 p.m. New York time, a police press release said.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, 62, who surveyed the crowd with Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, told reporters at a police command post that the lack of trouble ``sends a message that when the Republican National Convention comes here or any other event in this city, New York City knows how to balance the rights of people who have something to say with the requirements of the law.'' The mayor is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
Better Communications
Kelly said logistics planning with protesters had been improved since a February 2003 anti-war march, which marred by clashes and protester complaints that the department's crowd- control tactics were too restrictive.
A march organizer, Dustin Langley of International Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, said, ``Everyone seems to be cooperating, even with this crowd, which is bigger than we expected.''
The marchers' signs bore such messages as ``No blood for oil'' and ``Impeach the liar.'' For Fred D'Amato, a 56-year-old Vietnam War veteran from Pennsylvania, and his wife Miriam, 54, opposition to the war had a personal basis. Their son Christopher, 24, an Army reservist, has been stationed outside of Tikrit, Iraq, since Dec. 20, they said.
``I know what war is like,'' D'Amato said. ``That place is in civil war. We're going to be there for the next 10 or 15 years. We need to get all of our sons and daughters out of there.''
London March
About 25,000 protesters marched from Hyde Park, located to the west of Oxford Street, London's main shopping area, to Trafalgar Square, according to Alastair Campbell, a spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police, in an interview. There was one arrest for a public order offense, he said.
``People feel that everything they said about the war has proved to be true,'' said Lindsey German, spokeswoman for Stop the War Coalition, organizer of the London march. ``There are no weapons of mass destruction. The world is now a much more dangerous place.''
The protesters included two brothers -- Harry Westaway, 26, and his brother Simon, 24 -- who scaled the 335-foot (102-meter) height of Big Ben, the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament. The climbers were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage, said Rebecca May, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police, in an interview. She declined to confirm their identity.
Spain Protests
In Spain, about 50 nighttime marches were planned seeking the end of the Iraq occupation and the return of Spanish troops, radio Cadena Ser said on its Web site.
Opponents of the war, such as Spain's Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, 43, say the U.S.-led military coalition has failed to find the nuclear, chemical and biological weapons it claimed Iraq possessed. Zapatero called the war a ``disaster'' after his victory last Sunday.
In Paris, 2,500 people joined an anti-war march, according to the Prefecture de Police. There were no arrests, said an officer who declined to give his name.
In Athens, local police had no estimate of the number of people demonstrating. Protests were also planned in Copenhagen and Oslo.
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