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Tens of thousands of demonstrators are taking to the streets of London and other cities in Britain on Saturday to protest against war with Iraq, the biggest rallies since the start of the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Organized by the Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Muslim Association of Britain, the demonstrators started from two assembly points at Embankment and Gower Street in the British capital, merging at Piccadilly Circus before heading into Hyde Park for the rally.
Shouting anti-war slogans and beating drums, the demonstrators carried streamers and banners bearing such slogans as "Stop war on Iraq", "Stop, look, listen. No war in our name. No-one seems to be listening."
A total of 3,500 policemen have been called in to line the route of the London march, which by mid-afternoon organizers said had topped the 100,000 mark.
Further demonstrations are being held in cities across the country and at US military bases.
Thousands of anti-war protesters marched from Fairford Town in Gloucestershire in west England to the local RAF base, where US B-52 bombers are based with heavy police patrol. The bombers are believed to have played a key role in Friday night's strikes on Iraq.
Meanwhile, up to 1,000 people gathered for a "Foil the Base" demonstration at the US base at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire. Hundreds arrived clad in tin foil, which organizers hope will disrupt communications by blocking satellite signals.
In Prime Minister Tony Blair's constituency in north-east England, about 100 protesters gathered outside Trimdon Labor Club in Sedgefield to watch a caricature of Tony Blair jump through a hoop on the orders of a cartoon George W. Bush.
In Scotland, several thousand people took to the streets of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland, and Glasgow to voice their opposition to war, with smaller protests reported in Aberdeen, Inverness and Dundee.
The weekend marches followed days of protests across the country. On Thursday, more than 5,000 people brought part of central London to a standstill following the first strikes on Iraq.
On Feb. 15, over 500,000 Britons staged a demonstration against the then looming war on Iraq, joining millions of people in more than 300 cities across the globe in the biggest anti-war demonstration since the Vietnam war.
(Xinhua News Agency March 23, 2003)
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