Parisians lead peace protest
March 17, 2003 - The Montreal Gazette
PARIS – The citizens of the country leading the quest for a peaceful resolution in Iraq came out yesterday en masse to protest against the start of the U.S.-led war. An estimated 80,000 people converged last evening in front of the U.S. embassy and consulate at Place de la Concorde, to continue in their opposition to the bombing in Iraq. Tens of thousands of others converged in other French cities, joining hundreds of thousands of other protesters in cities around the world.
Alsaadi Shaker, president of the Association of Iraqis in France, positioned himself as close as possible to the embassy and hung a large Iraqi flag over the barricades. “The people of the world know that this is a war to liberate (Saddam) Hussein’s oil,” Shaker said. “Resolution 1441 gave the world a way to resolve this conflict peacefully, but now this is just an illegal war.”
Nearby a group of people waving Iraqi flags chanted “Bush… Blair ...Sharon ... Assasins!” The group tried unsuccessfully to burn a U.S. flag and a passerby noted, “You’ve got to soak it in oil first.”
Nearby, Anthony Ramil, a French sergeant who fought alongside U.S. troops in Iraq in 1991, concurred. “The war in 1991 was a just war. Iraq had been an aggressor, but this time it’s beyond my comprehension. This is disgusting.”
Anti-war activists throughout the United States set off their own barrage of street protests yesterday, chaining themselves together, blocking workers and traffic, walking out of classes, and parading in mock chemical suits. Hundreds were arrested from San Francisco, where at least 350 were arrested, to Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia and Boston.
But the anti-war groundswell brought out thousands of counter-demonstrators. One in Mississippi carried a sign saying: “Support the U.S. or keep your mouth shut.”
The Vatican expressed “deep pain” over the start of war, faulting both sides for failing to find a peaceful solution. Pope John Paul II dedicated a dawn mass in his private chapel to peace.
In Madrid, riot police fired rubber bullets at antiwar demonstrators, including actors and celebrities.
In London’s Parliament Square, police hauled away several demonstrators, including schoolchildren, who were sitting in roads and blocking access points.
In Berlin, more than 120,000 protesters took to the streets in two waves of demonstrations, including a noisy but peaceful march that wound its way past the U.S. embassy to the nearby Brandenburg Gate monument.
