Thousands take to the streets

2003-02-15 14:04

Johannesburg - Thousands of anti-war protesters gathered in South Africa's major cities on Saturday to protest against war in Iraq.

The protesters, and marchers in Cape Town, Durban and Bloemfontein, were taking part in an international campaign against the possible war. Major demonstrations have taken place in cities as diverse as London and Bangkok, Paris and Kuala Lumpur.

In Cape Town a crowd of several thousand people took to the streets in a peaceful protest organised by the Anti-war Coalition and its affiliates, and around 3 000 people chanted and sang outside the United States' Consul-General's office in Pritchard Street, Johannesburg.

Police spokesperson director Bala Naidoo, who was not personally monitoring the Durban march, said he had had no reports of any violence. Around 5 000 people had taken part.

"It went off peacefully," he said.

And Constable Thandi Mbambo said the Bloemfontein march had also been incident free.

Cape Town's march saw people from all walks of life, but predominantly Muslim, march together from Keizergracht opposite the Castle of Good Hope to the United States Embassy on the foreshore.

Waving placards and South African, Palestinian, and Iraqi flags, some of them upside down, the crowd made its way down Darling Street and Adderley Street to the Embassy amid tight security and a strong police presence.

Saturday morning shoppers either joined the march or watched in amusement, while only a number of homeless people sleeping off the previous night's revelry on the pavement or in doorways remained oblivious to the events.

Some of the more prominent of Cape Town's placards bore the slogans: By George, Bush is Just an Empty Warhead, Blix Start Searching Israel, Let's Make War Against Poverty, Behind Every Bush is a Terrorist, and Bush and Blair are Blood Brothers.

In Johannesburg protesters chanted: No blood for oil outside the Consul-General's offices and held up banners reading, Bush, declare your weapons of mass destruction, Disarm the warmongers too and US, UK, Israel - axis of hypocrisy.

Outside Cape Town's US Embassy, the crowd was treated to numerous speeches delivered by organisers and politicians through a powerful sound system from a makeshift stage.

Marchers were exhorted to keep up the anti-war momentum, because war in Iraq was not about weapons of mass destruction or human rights, but rather about that country's oil reserves.

Other speakers believed the United Nations could not be trusted, as it was controlled by the Unites States, Britain, and Germany.

The mass media could also not be trusted, because it was a "weapon of mass deception".

In the event of a war, the ordinary Iraqi people, the working class and the urban and rural poor, would suffer the most.

The US had the most weapons of mass destruction, and had used them against the working class and poor people all over the world, they said.

Bush, Saddam 'not complying with UN law

This sentiment was echoed, in Johannesburg, by Maxwell Nemadzivhanani, a Pan Africanist Congress MP, who said: "We think there is a need to defend international morality through the United Nations. We must bring (Iraqi President) Saddam (Hussein) on board, inside the UN tent. We don't want (US President) Bush to stay outside the tent. Two wrongs don't make a right."

"Bush is not complying with UN inspectors and processes. Saddam is dragging his feet with compliance. We want both sides to comply with international morality under the auspices of the UN."

According to a march pamphlet handed out in Cape Town, the coalition did not support "the dictator Saddam Hussein and his regime", but stood for the defence of the Iraqi people against the "attacks of imperialism, led by the USA and Britain".

Among the speakers was Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Ronnie Kasrils, who told the crowd they were all "Iraqis and Palestinians today".

"We will stop the war. The voice of the people will be heard," he said.

Johannesburg's protesters, many of whom were clad in red Anti-Privitisation Forum t'shirts and traditional Palestinian kaffeyiahs linked arms, forming a human chain outside the office block in which the Consul-General has offices.

Meanwhile armed police members with plastic shields formed their own chain at the entrance to the office building.

They did not, as originally planned, hand over a memorandum to the US consul-general and no one came out from the offices. A senior policeman on the scene said there had been no arrangement with the US Consulate for a hand over.

During the Johannesburg protest a man dressed in torn, soiled, jeans and shackled from head to toe limped in front of the consul-general's office block holding a banner reading: "Bush, unshackle the world with your arrogance now."

Another man, wearing an Osama Bin Laden t'shirt sang, in African gospel singer style: "Thank God I am not American."

Speakers on board the protest truck, which led the march, screamed through speakers, "Today we join 30m around the world to say, 'Down with Bush, down', 'Capitalists are willing to kill because of profit'.

Police monitoring the march said there had been no violence or trouble.

- SAPA