Aussies rally in protests
2004-03-20 10:42
Sydney - Thousands of anti-war activists staged rallies across Australia to mark the first anniversary of the US-led war on Iraq on Saturday.
Speakers at the rallies called for Australian troops to be sent home from Iraq and attacked Prime Minister John Howard's conservative government's strong ties with the United States.
About 2 000 people marched in Sydney, bearing an effigy of Howard with a large Pinocchio nose above a banner labelling him a war criminal.
Peace Network spokesperson Pamela Curr said the government's support for the war left it in the same position as Spain's outgoing pro-US Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who was ousted in an election after the Madrid bombings.
"We have to look at the reasons why the people voted out their government," she told ABC radio.
"One, the government lied to them and the second one was that the government took them to war when they didn't want to go to war."
Terry Hicks, the father of Australian terror suspect David Hicks who has been held for more than two years without charge at a US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, addressed a rally of about 3 000 people in Melbourne.
The rallies did not attract the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who marched in Australia's major cities in the lead up to the war.
The Howard government has reiterated its commitment to the Iraq campaign in the wake of the Madrid bombings and defended its deployment of 2 000 troops for the invasion.