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Americans slam Bush's war plan
08/10/2002 00:47 - (SA)
New York - Tens of thousands of people demonstrated on the streets of the United States' largest cities to protest President George W Bush's plans to invade Iraq.
The protests - with additional demonstrations planned in various US cities - were timed to coincide with the one-year
anniversary of the US-led bombing campaign against the Taliban and its al-Qaeda allies in Afghanistan.
In New York on Sunday, at least 15 000 people - led by a
handful of top Hollywood stars - gathered in Central Park to
denounce Washington's stance towards Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Among the protesters was Oscar-winning movie star Susan
Sarandon, star of hit films such as Thelma and Louise, and her husband, actor-director Tim Robbins.
Sarandon slammed the Bush administration's alleged bellicose
policy as "madness ... a war that would kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people."
Who's next?
The pair called on Americans to contact their members of
Congress to express their opposition to plans to attack Baghdad.
Robbins claimed that the US president, who comes from Texas, was more interested in oil profits than global diplomacy and was ready to attack other nations.
"Colombia will be next. This is an an oil hungry
administration," he said.
Also among the huge crowd of protesters in New York were
relatives of some of the 2 800 victims of the airborne terror attacks on New York's World Trade Centre on September 11 last year.
"I don't want my country to bomb Iraqi children, women, men,
innocent people, in my name ... not in my name," insisted Janet
Williams, whose brother Bill died in the September 11 strikes.
The protest was one of a string of demonstrations organized by a group dubbed "Not In Our Name," a coalition of anti-war activists opposed to the US bombing of Afghanistan and US plans to launch military action against Iraq.
Arrests
Two arrests were for disorderly conduct during the lively but
otherwise peaceful protest, police in New York said.
Protesters in such cities as New York, San Franciso and Los
Angeles chanted slogans and held up placards bearing slogans such
as "Change the US administration, not Iraq's."
In downtown San Francisco, some 5 000 people protested in the city's Union Square area, according to the local police department.
"This was a fairly significant demonstration, but it was
entirely peaceful and no arrests were made," Paul Yep, a spokesman with the San Francisco Police Department said.
In Los Angeles, about 3 000 people took part in protests held
near the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles,
forcing police to close down a battery of streets in the area and
even a freeway, albeit briefly.
Police said the demonstration was the largest so far against
Washington's Iraq policy, but reported no violence or arrests.
"This is all about stopping this war," protester Joey Johnson
said. "It's unjust, immoral, it's unprecedented, it's not
legitimate, it's a global onslaught."
In addition to opposing a war on Iraq, protesters also want
Washington to stop detentions and roundups of immigrants and halt
"police state" restrictions on civil liberties.
And Oliver Stone
More protests took place in other US cities and some were
planned for Monday in such places as Chicago, Seattle, Washington,
Portland in the state of Oregon, Houston, Atlanta in the southern
state of Georgia and Denver in Colorado.
Those demonstrations also coincide with Bush's planned televised
speech late Monday, in which he is expected to make his case to the
American public for US military action against Baghdad.
On Friday, several hundred celebrities and intellectuals
published a "Not in our Name" manifesto in the Los Angeles Times,
urging Americans to resist their government's policies.
We "call on the people of the US to resist the policies and
overall political direction that have emerged since September 11,
2001, and which pose grave dangers to the people of the world,"
they wrote.
Among the signatories were JFK movie director Oliver Stone, Gosford Park filmmakers Robert Altman and Terry Gilliam, actress Jane Fonda, Lethal Weapon star Danny Glover and Susan Sarandon.
- Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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