Protesters condemn war against Iraq
‘Boycott the Dollar’ Demonstrations
continued this weekend throughout the country in protest of the US-led war against Iraq,
with some featuring official presence amid tight security measures.
The coordination committee of the civil campaign for the support of Palestine
organized a demonstration on Saturday called “Loyalty to the Resistance in
Iraq,” which started at Barbir and headed toward the headquarters of ESCWA.
Participants included former prime ministers Salim Hoss, Rashid Solh and Amin Hafez,
Minister of State Beshara Merhej, former ministers and MPs, as well as many figures and
residents from all over the country.
Demonstrators raised banners reading “Close the Suez Canal in the face of
invaders,” “Boycott the dollar and all those who support the US attack,”
and “Rumsfeld’s threat to Syria will not cover the failure of armies in
Iraq.”
Others carried effigies of US President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair,
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and large pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad,
President Emile Lahoud, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and the late Egyptian President
Gamal Abdel-Nasser, in addition to Lebanese, Syrian, Egyptian, Iraqi and Palestinian
flags.
Some young men carried a coffin wrapped in black cloth, on which was written “The
United Nations and the Arab League” and another coffin, on which the following
expression was written: “Arab leaders, your coffins are white and your graves are
black.”
A truck equipped with loud-speakers was leading the demonstration and broadcasting songs
of Iraqi singer Kazem Asaher and Lebanese singer Marcel Khalifeh. A disabled man was seen
behind the truck carrying a banner reading “Syrian-Iraqi-Iranian alliance is the
response to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.”
Young demonstrators carried pictures of Iraqi victims under the rubble or in hospitals and
the pictures of Iraqi farmers, happy at shooting down a US helicopter last week.
Just before demonstrators reached the ESCWA square, where security forces and Civil
Defense vehicles were positioned, pictures of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi suddenly
appeared carried by a group of workers calling themselves “supporters of
Gadhafi.”
Omar Chibli read the speech of the “civil campaign” and said that the United
States was “everybody’s enemy.”
Chibli denounced the killing of Iraqi civilians by US troops and said those responsible
should be held accountable.
In Tyre, thousands of people participated in a similar demonstration led by MPs Ali
Khalil, Ali Khreis and Abdullah Qassir, and Muslim and Christian clerics.
Participants in the protest roamed the streets of Tyre and shops were closed down for one
hour, from 12pm to 1pm, upon a request from the Tyre Merchants Association.
The Arqoub Residents Committee organized a demonstration outside Al-Farouq Mosque in
Shebaa where hundreds of residents participated, raising banners condemning the US-led war
on Iraq.
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