Antiwar Rallies 'Round The World

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world demonstrated against the U.S. presence in Iraq on the first anniversary of the war Saturday, in protests that retained the anger, if not the size, of rallies held before he invasion began.

Protesters filled more than a dozen police-lined blocks in Manhattan, calling on President Bush to bring home U.S. troops serving in Iraq. Mayor Michael Bloomberg estimated the crowd at about 30,000, but organizers said later that number had grown to more than 100,000.

It was one of 250 antiwar protests scheduled around the country by United for Peace and Justice. Hundreds of thousands of activists also raised their voices at rallies in London, Cairo, Tokyo and other cities in Europe, Asia and elsewhere.

New York police in riot gear walked calmly past barricades marking off the demonstration area on Madison Avenue as speakers mounted a stage to address the crowd on a sunny afternoon.

The event was peaceful, unlike a demonstration one year earlier that drew 100,000 people and produced several clashes between demonstrators and police.

Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly stopped by the rally, but didn't speak to demonstrators or participate.

While turnout was high in some nations, the protests were all far smaller than the enormous demonstrations held around the world shortly before the war began.

A New York protest a year ago drew more than 125,000 by official estimates. Although that's similar to organizers' estimate Saturday, organizers for last year's event estimated the crowd at more than 250,000.

The demonstratons around the U.S. Saturday ranged from solemn to brash.

In Montpelier, Vt., hundreds of silent protesters placed a pair of shoes on the Statehouse steps for each of the more than 560 U.S. soldiers killed in the war.

In Los Angeles, one of about 2,000 protesters held photographs of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney with the words, "forget Janet Jackson's - expose the real boobs."

In Cincinnati, several hundred people gathered in a downtown park to call for a U.S. troop withdrawal. Claire Mugavin, clad in a biohazard suit, pretended to look for weapons of mass destruction beneath benches and garbage cans.

"We figure they're not in Iraq," said the 24-year-old Cincinnati resident. "So we figured we'd come look for them in Fountain Square."

The rallies coincided with the anniversary of the first bombings in Baghdad last year. Although President Bush ordered the attacks on March 19, the time difference made it March 20 in Iraq.

Chicago police in full riot gear lined downtown streets as thousands of war opponents marched about two miles to the city's Federal Plaza.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson told the Chicago demonstrators to express their opposition to the war by voting against President Bush. "It's time to fight back: Remember in November," he said.

Thousands marched from Seattle's First Hill neighborhood to the waterfront, including Alberto Salazar, who has a 20-year-old son in the Marines who served in Iraq.

"I feel angry that we have gone this far," Salazar said. "I feel hopeful people are waking up and seeing the truth of this whole matter."

In San Francisco, hundreds of demonstrators chanted "End the occupation" and "Impeach Bush."

Several thousand people turned out in Denver to protest the war. "This is just the start of the process, a public expression of our opposition to the war," said Mark Cohen, 58, one of the march's organizers.

About 350 marched in Albuquerque, N.M., and an anti-war rally and march in Augusta, Maine, drew 1,000 or more participants, estimated organizers and police.

A smaller but enthusiastic band of counter-demonstrators in Augusta urged passing motorists to honk their horns in support. "We're here so the troops know we support them," said Erica Nawfel, 27, of Waterville.

Several hundred demonstrators turned out in Atlanta, including a large number of high school and college students.

"I think in a Democratic society, any dialogue like this is one of the things that allows us to have the rights we have," said Andy Sunshine, 19, a student at Atlanta's Peachtree Ridge High School.

Overseas,

Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and other European countries also saw protests, while demonstrations took place earlier in Japan, Australia and India. About 500 protesters clashed with police outside the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines capital, Manila. No injuries were reported.

Demonstrators in Cairo - vastly outnumbered by riot police - burned an American flag. Hundreds of people gathered in other Middle Eastern capitals to denounce the war.

"I thought the war was illegal, and we need to all show our feelings about that," said Neil Andrew, a 57-year-old builder taking part in the London protest. "They should hand control over to the United Nations but I don't think that will happen."

London's Metropolitan Police estimated that some 25,000 people took part in the rally between Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square in the center of the British capital. Organizers put the figure at 100,000.

Early Saturday, two anti-war demonstrators wearing climbing gear scaled the Big Ben clock tower at the Houses of Parliament and held up a small banner that read "Time for Truth" before coming down several hours later. Police said they would review security at Parliament following the incident.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was the United States' staunchest ally in the war. But many Britons opposed the invasion and questions about the conflict's legality have dogged the government as coalition forces have failed to find Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

In Italy, anti-war activists jammed the streets of central Rome, many of them decked out in rainbow-colored peace flags and chanting "assassins." There was no crowd estimate from police.

Protesters demanded that Italy withdraw its 2,600 troops from Iraq. The center-right government of Premier Silvio Berlusconi was a strong supporter of the war, even though most Italians opposed it.

Paolo Quadrardi, a 42-year-old mechanic, said the Madrid train bombings that killed 202 people and injured some 1,800 others showed that "war doesn't do anything but increase terrorism."

Many Spaniards have accused the outgoing conservative government of provoking the March 11 attacks by supporting the Iraq war. The ruling Popular Party fell in a surprise loss to the Socialists in general elections last weekend.

The Socialists on Saturday repeated their intention to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq unless the United Nations takes charge in the Mideast nation. Thousands gathered for an anti-war rally in Madrid.

Some Americans joined about 2,500 protesters in Paris, where demonstrators blared a rendition of the John Lennon song "Give Peace a Chance" through loudspeakers.

"We are here to protest the war and the inhumanity of Bush's policies," said Bill Tilden, 60, a visitor from San Francisco. "He's a disgrace to our country. We're ashamed."

In Berlin, about 1,600 people attended a rally while in western Germany some 2,000 activists met outside a U.S. military base, accusing Washington of undermining the fight against international terrorism by invading Iraq.

"George Bush did not wage a war against terror," veteran peace activist Franz Alt told protesters gathered outside the Ramstein Air Base. "He has ensured with his wars that terrorism is now stronger."

More than 10,000 people marched to the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece, protesting the war in Iraq and government plans to have NATO assist in the security of the Aug. 13-29 Olympics.

Some 3,000 took to the streets of Amsterdam. Rallies also took place in Belgium, Norway, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Poland, Finland, Ukraine and Denmark.

As many as 30,000 people turned out in Tokyo to protest Japan's involvement in the war, organizers there said. The country has sent 1,000 personnel to Iraq, its largest foreign deployment since the Second World War.

In Turkey, one of Iraq's neighbors, about 2,000 anti-American demonstrators protested the war before dispersing peacefully amid tight security in Ankara and Istanbul.

Jordan and Bahrain also witnessed small rallies. In San`a, Yemen, where authorities had banned a demonstration, opposition parties and union members held a sit-in outside parliament and issued a statement condemning the government.

Communists, anti-war activists and ordinary citizens took part in marches across India, some burning effigies of Bush and Blair. "Down with war mongering America," read protest banners in Jammu-Kashmir, India's only Muslim majority state.

Protesters in Sydney held aloft a 5-foot-high effigy of Prime Minister John Howard in a cage, saying it represented Australian terror suspects detained at the U.S. military prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Howard's government sent troops to Iraq, despite overwhelming public opposition.

Demonstrators also held rallies in South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, New Zealand and South Africa.