More anti-war protests ahead as public fears long Iraq conflict

PARIS (AFP) Mar 29, 2003
Campaigners across the world were gearing up on Saturday for another weekend of protests against the war in Iraq, as public fears mounted that US-British forces could become embroiled in a bloody and prolonged conflict that would have dangerous consequences for global security.

In Bangladesh -- where Prime Minister Khaleda Zia hask called for an immediate end to the war and voiced regret for the deaths of innocent civilians -- police said some 5,000 members of the Islamic group Shashantantro Andolon staged a peaceful protest and tried to march on the guarded diplomatic areas in the capital Dhaka.

On Friday Bangladesh, the world's third largest Muslim-majority country, saw 10,000 people turn out in Dhaka to demand an end to the invasion of Iraq, torching a large number of effigies of US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Tens of thousands of people were expected to turn out at protests on Saturday in London, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Athens and several other European cities.

The Stop the War Coalition was planning demonstrations across Britain as the bodies of the first British servicemen to die in the conflict were being flown home. The protests were designed to target the war coverage provided by public broadcaster BBC, which the anti-war coalition says is merely regurgitating the government's line, and to vent mounting public anger at the rising number of civilian casualties.

According to Iraq Body Count, a group of British- and US-based academics and researchers that provides a database of civilian deaths in Iraq, between 283 and 391 civilians have been killed in the war since it began on March 20.

China's police have given the go-ahead for the country's first anti-war protests on Sunday but has strictly limited the numbers allowed to take part. One demonstration is to be held by a group of intellectuals in a park and another by students of the prestigious Beijing University, the organisers said on Saturday.

Beijing has until now refused to allow its people to take to the streets, fearing activists could be emboldened to take on domestic targets.

Public hostilty to the war has remained strong in most European countries, with the press offering few notes of optimism on the progress of the US and British military campaign.

The planned weekend demonstrations follow massive protests by Muslims in Asia and the Middle East after Friday prayers and smaller demonstrations across Europe.

WAR.WIRE