- NEW YORK (AP) -- Thousands
of protesters turned out nationwide Saturday to mark the first anniversary
of the start of the U.S.-led war on Iraq and call for the removal of American
troops from the Middle East country.
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- "It is time to bring our children home and declare
this war was unnecessary," said the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, a New York
activist addressing a crowd of up to 30,000 at the Manhattan rally.
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- It was one of 250 anti-war 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
around the globe.
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- 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.
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- The event was peaceful, unlike a demonstration one year
earlier that drew 100,000 people and produced several clashes between demonstrators
and police.
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- Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly
stopped by the rally, but didn't speak to demonstrators or participate.
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- 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.
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- "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."
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- The New York demonstrators filled a 10-block stretch
of Madison Avenue as they walked through the city.
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- "I thank you for bringing your bodies to defend
peace," said Ray Laforest of the Haiti Support Network. "I'm
here to stand with the Palestinian people, and to condemn the occupation
of Iraq."
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- 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.
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- An anti-war rally and march in Augusta, Maine, drew 1,000
or more participants registering their opposition to U.S. military involvement
in Iraq, estimated event organizers and capitol police.
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- "We've come together basically to say occupation
and empire is wrong," said Tim Sullivan, co-ordinator of the Maine
Coalition for Peace and Justice.
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- 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.
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- Several hundred demonstrators turned out in Atlanta,
including a large number of high school and college students.
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- "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.
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- Overseas, thousands marched through central London -
some waving placards calling President Bush the "World's No. 1 Terrorist"
- and organizers said up to 300,000 people turned out in Rome.
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- 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.
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- Demonstrators in Cairo ó vastly outnumbered by
riot police ó burned an American flag. Hundreds of people gathered
in other Middle Eastern capitals to denounce the war.
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- Early Saturday, two anti-war demonstrators wearing climbing
gear scaled London's 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.
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- Copyright © 2004 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority
of The Associated Press.
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