World protests mark Iraq war anniversary; UN probe declared

By: Raza Ali

SYDNEY, Australia: Millions of protesters took to the streets around the world on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of US-led war in Iraq, saying the occupation had incited more terrorism and demanding the withdrawal of troops from the Mideast nation.

Australia kicked off a wave of worldwide rallies where community and church leaders addressed protests. Protesters in Sydney held a 5 foot-high effigy of Premier John Howard in a cage, saying it represented Australian terror suspects detained at the US military prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In Iraq, thousands of Sunni and Shiite Muslims staged a joint protest calling for an end to “American occupation” of their country. “No to Saddam. No to the Americans. Yes to Islam,” they chanted.

In London, two Greenpeace activists wearing helmets and harnesses scaled the Big Ben clock tower at Parliament and unfurled a banner that read “Time for Truth.” Greenpeace said they were protesting the war.

“It's time we got the truth about why thousands of people had to die in a war that the world did not want,” said Greenpeace executive director Stephen Tindale. “We want to send a clear message to (Prime Minister) Tony Blair that we and the British people are fed up with the half-truths and evasions on Iraq.”

Thousands more demonstrators marched through central London to protest the US military action.

More than 250 demonstrations were organized across the United States. The anti-war umbrella group United for Peace and Justice also planned protest rallies in the United States. Meanwhile US police arrested around 2-dozen protestors in San Francisco. The organizers of the rallies said that protests are not only against US occupation on Iraq but also decry Bush hostile policies.

In Tokyo, as many as 30,000 people turned out to protest Japan's involvement in the war. The country has sent 1,000 personnel to Iraq, its largest foreign deployment since the Second World War. Waving placards reading “Drop Bush, Not Bombs!” protesters marched in the rain.

In Hong Kong, demonstrators marched to the US Consulate General, chanting slogans “Just peace, not war,” and “Stop the war in the Middle East, for justice for peace.”

About 500 anti-Iraq war protesters who tried to push their way to the US Embassy in the Philippine capital briefly scuffled with riot police. After some pushing and shoving, the demonstrators hurled stones at the security personnel, who responded with water cannons as the protesters locked arms and stood their ground.

Thousands of South Koreans poured into the streets at rallies around the nation Saturday to protest the war in Iraq and the country's unprecedented presidential impeachment, as baton-wielding police mobilized to guard against possible violence.

Protests were also held in New Zealand, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Germany, India, Pakistan and Egypt.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for an independent “high-level” enquiry into allegations of fraud and corruption in the UN aid program that oversaw Iraqi oil sales under Saddam Hussein. Annan has been under pressure to conduct an investigation from Iraqi leaders as well as the US officials searching for Saddam's hidden assets.

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