- LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters)
- More than six million demonstrators turned out across the world on Saturday
in a wave of protest supporting international leaders in urging the United
States not to rush into a war against Iraq.
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- From Canberra to Cape Town, from Karachi to Chicago,
people from all walks of life took to the streets to pillory President
Bush as a bloodthirsty warmonger in the biggest demonstration of 'people
power' since the Vietnam War.
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- The largest outcry against war occurred in the European
countries whose leaders have vocally supported Bush's position at the United
Nations.
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- A million people marched the streets of Rome, 1.3 million
paraded in Barcelona, two million in Madrid, and in New York, officials
estimated the turnout there at 250,000.
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- At least half a million marched in London, creating a
major headache for Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's closest ally.
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- "I hope this demonstration will show Muslims it
is our government that wants the war, not the British people," said
protester Richard Shirres, rallying in London with his six-year-old son.
London Mayor Ken Livingstone said the rally was the largest peace demonstration
in British political history.
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- Bush and Blair suffered a setback on Friday to their
efforts to win international backing for early military action to rid Iraq
of suspected weapons of mass destruction in a dramatic showdown at the
United Nations.
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- France, Russia, China, Germany and other nations said
U.N. weapons inspections should continue in statements that seemed set
to slow the introduction of a resolution the United States and Britain
want to authorize the use of force.
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- French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin boasted of
a triumph in France's efforts to brake Washington's push for war after
the French foreign minister won applause for his call for at least another
month of inspections.
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- 'GIVING PEACE A CHANCE'
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- "France is giving peace a chance. France is giving
hope to the world and all over the world people are looking to France ...,"
Raffarin told parliament.
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- But French commentators said Baghdad had probably won
only a brief reprieve.
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- Secretary of State Colin Powell told CNN that Washington
was still thinking of giving Iraq just weeks to comply with U.N. disarmament
demands.
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- Iraqi media said the reactions to the much-anticipated
inspectors' report to the United Nations showed the United States and Britain
were isolated and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz hailed the worldwide
protests.
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- "They show the conscience of mankind against crime
and against aggression," Aziz, Iraq's most prominent Christian, told
Reuters television in Italy, where he prayed for peace.
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- President Saddam Hussein meanwhile told an envoy of Pope
John Paul the United States wanted to attack Iraq because it was a Muslim
country.
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- Cardinal Roger Etchegaray met the Iraqi leader for 90
minutes in Baghdad and delivered a letter from the Holy See focusing on
finding a peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis.
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- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the United Nations
might need to pass a new resolution on Iraq and warned Baghdad not to try
to take advantage of apparent differences in the Security Council.
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- Annan said on Abu Dhabi television he did not believe
that war was inevitable, but that arms inspections could not continue indefinitely
without Baghdad's cooperation.
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- But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that if it
came to conflict, Washington would have at least as many allies as it did
during the 1991 war to drive Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
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- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder insisted there was
still a chance to disarm Iraq without war. "Let us take that chance
as true internationalists," he said during a visit to Finland.
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- GERMAN MARCHERS
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- Demonstrations in Iraq itself were relatively small,
with several thousand protesting in Baghdad and other cities. But about
half a million people marched in Germany, the biggest such rally since
World War II.
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- One French woman said that Washington's appetite for
war with Iraq was an overreaction to the Sept. 11 attacks.
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- "The Americans were stressed by September 11 and
now they are going completely overboard," she said. She was among
the 300,000 demonstrators who took to the streets.
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- In Spain, Oscar-nominated film director Pedro Almodovar
whipped up the crowd of two million in Madrid with chants of "No to
war!"
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- "We don't understand the concept of a preventive
war. The only preventive war is called peace," Almodovar told those
demonstrating on a cold but clear day.
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- In Havana, Cuba's communist government organized a rally
of 5,000 workers and students to reject the war planned by its longtime
ideological foe, the United States.
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- Saturday's protests kicked off in New Zealand and Australia,
where tens of thousands of people poured on to the streets, and were expected
to spread to more than 600 towns and cities stretching from Antarctica
to Iceland.
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- In California, tens of thousands of protesters were expected
to join marches and demonstrations in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose,
Sacramento and smaller cities.
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- In Chicago, about 3,000 people waved such signs as "No
War for Oil" and "President Bush Will Your Daughters Enlist?."
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- In his weekly radio address, Bush sought to calm Americans
rattled by a taped message believed to be from fugitive al Qaeda chief
Osama bin Laden, blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks, urging Muslims to fight
America.
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- "Many of these dangers are unfamiliar and unsettling.
Yet the best way to fight these dangers is to anticipate them, and act
against them with focus and determination," Bush said.
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- While Bush has considerable domestic support for a conflict,
Blair faces a high level of hostility, especially if a war effort fails
to secure U.N. endorsement. He tried to gain the moral advantage over the
demonstrators in London, saying they would not number more than the people
killed in wars started by Saddam.
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- Kuwait, invaded by Iraq in 1991, began sealing off its
northern half to allow its military to step up training to defend against
any attack from Baghdad.
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- The crisis over how to disarm Iraq caused one of the
most damaging divisions in NATO's 54-year history after France, Germany
and Belgium refused to allow the alliance to start defensive planning for
Iraq's neighbor Turkey in case of war.
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- But diplomatic sources said Saturday a compromise was
likely to be agreed next Monday or Tuesday.
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