19 March 2005Yahoo Nows
Some 100,000 people are expected to march through central London to protest against the invasion of Iraq (news - web sites) two years ago and other elements of the US-led war on terror, organisers said.
|
Starting at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park at 1:00 pm (1300 GMT) on Saturday and ending at Trafalgar Square, the demonstrators will hear speeches by anti-war campaigners such as the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, and former Guantanamo Bay inmate Martin Mubanga and place a coffin in front of the US embassy.
"We need help to make this demonstration as big as possible" the action group, which organised the rally, Stop The War Coalition, said on its website.
"With rumours of an attack on Iran (news - web sites) in June and the demonstration being a matter of weeks before the general election it would be fantastic to have many hundreds of thousands of people expressing their anti-war sentiment," it said.
A spokesman for the coalition told AFP that at least 100,000 people were expected to take part, noting that the march would pass in front of America's embassy in Grosvenor Square where the organisers planned to deposit the coffin.
It will be the first mass demonstration outside the building since it became a flashpoint of anti-Vietnam War protests in 1968, the organisers said.
And Washington's recent nomination of key Iraq-war planner Paul Wolfowitz as chairman of the World Bank (news - web sites) had hardeneded people's US resentment, they added.
"One might have expected a little humility from the Bush administration after its destruction and occupation of Iraq," convenor Lindsey German said.
"However, the nomination of Wolfowitz, the man who is recognised as chief architect of war with Iraq, will outrage most decent people."
A fine spring day, with the sun bursting out of a clear blue sky, will likely boost numbers at Britain's 11th rally against the Iraq invasion -- which began on March 20, 2003 -- and coaches have been booked to ferry people to London from across the country.
Member of Parliament George Galloway, who is also due to speak, said recent meetings he had attended around Britian showed there was still massive opposition to the nation's involvement in Iraq.
"The demonstration will form the backdrop to the election and we will not rest until we have forced the prime minister to withdraw our forces from Iraq," he said, referring to a general election that is widely expected on May 5.
Protesters have set up a "peace camp" in Trafalgar Square, which is down the road from the Houses of Parliament, as part of preparations for the demonstration, which is also supported by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmement (CND).
"This peace camp will reflect our message that there is a peaceful alternative to the violent, aggressive, warmongering policies that led to the war on Iraq and the deaths of thousands of innocent people," said CND chairwoman Kate Hudson.
"We are calling for an end to the ongoing bloody occupation of Iraq, but we are also asking the question -- where next Mr (US President George W) Bush?"
