The Hindu : Anti-war protests swell across globe

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 22, 2003

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Anti-war protests swell across globe

TOKYO MARCH 21. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators shut down airports and banks, snarled traffic with bicycles and called for boycotts of American products on Friday, the second day of global protests against the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Two persons were shot dead and dozens more injured as police clashed with some 30,000 demonstrators chanting ``Death to America!'' who were trying to storm the U.S. embassy in Yemen. An 11-year-old Yemeni boy was killed in a shootout between police and protesters in the capital, Sanaa.

Security sources said three policemen were wounded in the clash that erupted after police stopped about 3,000 people from marching on the U.S. embassy in the Arab state.

In Cairo, at least 5,000 Egyptians protested against the war, gathering outside the city's historic al-Azhar mosque after noon prayers.

A four-hour nationwide strike in Greece brought the country to a standstill. More than 1,50,000 people demonstrated in Athens, and more than 60,000 outside the U.S. consulate in the northern port of Thessaloniki.

The strike shut down airports, banks, mass transportation and stores. Consumer unions called for a boycott of all American products, from clothes to movies. The Socialist government openly supported the protests.

More than 5,000 rallied in the streets of Melbourne after the Australian military confirmed its special forces were in Iraq with British and U.S. forces identifying targets for coalition aircraft and monitoring enemy troop movements.

Dozens of activists converged on the American embassy in Thailand. About 7,000 Muslims in Kota Baharu in eastern Malaysia burned British and U.S. flags as well as effigies of the U.S. President, George W. Bush, and the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

In China, police watched as two dozen foreigners carried protest placards in a Beijing park.

In Britain, scores of anti-war protesters on bicycles shouted anti-war slogans as they rode by Blair's office on their way to blocking Parliament Square in central London, where they caused havoc in a ``Pedal for Peace'' protest.

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