Date:31/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/31/stories/2006123120330300.htm

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

City responds with a spate of protests

Staff Reporter

The hartal called by political parties in the district passed off peacefully

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The capital city witnessed a spate of protest marches against the execution of the former president of Iraq Saddam Hussein on Saturday.

Throughout the day, activists of various students' organisations, youth organisations, employees' organisations and trade unions took to the streets shouting slogans hailing Saddam Hussein and slamming U.S. president George Bush and `global imperialism.'

Activists of the SUCI-AIDSO who took out a protest march to the Secretariat and burnt an effigy of George Bush. "There is no death for Saddam Hussein," the activists shouted.

Soon after this, activists of the DYFI also arrived in procession at the `Satyagraha' gate shouting slogans against the U.S. president and hailing the former Iraqi president as a martyr in the struggle against U.S. imperialism. DYFI State president Sreeramakrishnan inaugurated the protest meeting.

The protest march and meeting organised by the district unit of the CPI(M) was inaugurated by Desabhimani chief editor V.V. Dakshinamoorthy. "Saddam Hussein as a martyr will do more harm to the policies of the U.S. than when he was alive," he said. Activists of the Congress (I), AIYF, Solidarity Youth Movement (SYM) , the Indian National League and those of the Secretariat Employees' Association also took out protest marches on Saturday. Activists of SYM carried out a mock execution of the U.S. president in front of the Secretariat.

A hartal called in the afternoon by the CPI(M) passed off peacefully and was near-total. The hartal called in the Vallakkadavu area by various Muslim organisations was total and peaceful.

In a press note issued here on Saturday, Congress leader V.M. Sudheeran said the U.S. government and its president have proven to be the world's top criminals through the execution of Saddam Hussein. The Bush administration has destroyed a country and its leader unmindful of the message against the occupation of Iraq send out by the American people in the just-concluded elections in that country, he said. In a message, the Trivandrum Bar Association said Saddam Hussein who became a martyr to American cruelty has attained sainthood in the eyes of the people of the world.

The road leading to the Vizhinjam beach was blocked by local residents from morning till evening on Saturday as a mark of protest against the execution of Saddam Hussein. There was an argument between some foreign tourists and locals when a van carrying 20-odd tourists was blocked at the beach road in the morning.