Students hold first anti-war protest in China

Students at the elite Peking University took part in a quiet anti-war demonstration, in an unusual case of campus political activism permitted by Chinese authorities.

About two dozen students set up signboards displaying photographs of wounded Iraqi civilians and passed out leaflets criticising the war. A box was set out for donations to help Iraqi refugees, and five students briefly held up letters spelling "No War" in English.

However, police dispersed anti-war protesters who sought to gather in other parts of Beijing, continuing the practice of forbidding most public demonstrations.

Indonesia

Elsewhere in Asia, Indonesians held their biggest anti-war demonstration to date. Chanting "America imperialist, number one terrorist", more than 100,000 Indonesians peacefully marched a mile from the British embassy to the US embassy in Jakarta. Some witnesses estimated the crowd was as large as 300,000.

Protesters - many dressed in Muslim attire and representing the country's largest Islamic groups - wore headbands saying "Peace, No War", and carried banners that read "Bush, Iraq is not your killing field."

Outside the heavily guarded US embassy, speakers demanded the US get out of Iraq and called for President George Bush, Tony Blair and the Australian prime minister, John Howard, to be tried as war criminals.

"Bush is the real evil and the real terrorist," Amien Rais, speaker of Indonesia's top legislative body, told the cheering crowd.

South Korea

In South Korea, 30,000 workers demanded that the national assembly reject a government bill that calls for 600 military engineers and 100 medics to support the US-led campaign.

Pakistan

An estimated 100,000 demonstrators marched in the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar in a protest organised by hardline Islamic leaders. The march was the fourth in a series of large-scale protests in Pakistan's main cities. Smaller demonstrations of several thousand people were held in the cities of Multan in central Pakistan and Quetta in the southwest.

Morocco

In Morocco, riot police moved in to end an anti-war march by some 200,000 people as angry demonstrators began throwing stones, burning US flags and tearing down posters advertising American products.

About a dozen people were injured by stones and bottles, hospital sources said. Brandishing fake weapons, coffins and portraits of the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, demonstrators marched through the capital, Rabat, denouncing the "imperialist aggression".

More than 1,000 police in full riot gear restored order after the march, among the largest in recent years in this normally tranquil city, grew violent.

A number of government ministers took part in the demonstration in a country with traditionally strong ties with the US. In a signal of displeasure with America from the very top, King Mohammed VI yesterday announced the opening of a bank account to take in donations for "brother Iraqis".

Protesters carried coffins representing "Arab martyrs," and waved posters referring to Mr Bush as a "vampire of Arab blood". Posters advertising McDonalds and other US products were torn down and at least a dozen US and Israeli flags were burned.

Israel

Meanwhile, the radical Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad, said that it had sent a first wave of suicide bombers to Baghdad to help Iraqis fight US and British troops.

"Al-Quds Brigades brings to our people and nation the good news of the arrival of its first martyrdom (attackers) to the heart of Baghdad," a faxed statement from the armed wing of Islamic Jihad said. "This is to fulfil the holy duty of defending Arab and Muslim land."

Bulgaria

In Europe, thousands marched through downtown Sofia, in Bulgaria's largest demonstration against the war in Iraq to date. Estimates of the numbers ranged from 5,000 to 16,000.

Chanting "Give peace a chance," the protesters carried slogans saying "Not war, peace now," "Not in our name," "Bush and Blair to The Hague," a reference to the UN war crimes tribunal in the Netherlands.

Demonstrators also vented their anger at the government's support of the US by demanding the resignation of the entire cabinet. Bulgaria has given the US military permission to use a Black Sea airport and has said it would deploy a 100-member army unit to an as yet undisclosed country neighbouring Iraq.



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