Anti-war protests saturated the state ““ and the globe
““ Sunday, capping a string of demonstrations held worldwide
over the past week as tensions over “Operation Iraqi
Freedom” ran high.
In Los Angeles on Sunday, thousands of people marched through
downtown in an early spring heat wave to protest the U.S.-led war
against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.
“˜”˜An eye for an eye leaves the whole world
blind,” declared a sign carried by Maria Barahona, 22,
a sociology student from California State University, Northridge.
She said the quote summed up her fears about the war.
“˜”˜I need to take a stand. And this is the right
answer,” said Barahona, who didn’t expect her
effort to stop the bombing of Baghdad, but added that taking part
in the protest made her feel less alone in dissent.
The estimated 5,000 demonstrators were peaceful and there were
no arrests, said Officer Lucy Diaz, a police spokeswoman.
Protesters gathered at Pershing Square and walked in 88-degree
temperatures to the downtown Federal Building.
Meanwhile, Indonesians held their biggest demonstration against
the Iraq war to date Sunday, and students in China staged a rare
state-sanctioned protest as hundreds of thousands around the world
produced another day of rallies denouncing the conflict.
Chanting that America was the “˜”˜No. 1
terrorist,” more than 100,000 Indonesians peacefully
marched one mile from the British Embassy to the U.S. 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.”
Students at China’s elite Peking University staged a quiet
demonstration against the U.S.-led war, in a rare instance of
campus political activism permitted by Chinese authorities.
About two dozen students set up signboards displaying
photographs of wounded Iraqi civilians and passed out handbills
criticizing 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 a practice of
forbidding most public demonstrations.
Closer to home, anti-war protesters engaged in civil
disobedience in Westwood during finals week by blocking traffic at
the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Veteran Avenue, after
assembling at the Federal Building.
Protesters sitting in the middle of Wilshire said they were
willing to be arrested for their actions.
“I’m standing up for what I believe in,” said
Anna Shey, a first-year student at the American Academy of Dramatic
Arts in Hollywood.
She added she did not agree with the actions of some protesters
who were verbally insulting the hundreds of law enforcement
officers on the scene.
“I don’t like them disrespecting the police
officers. They’re doing their job just like we’re doing
ours,” she said.
Some demonstrators were arrested in the Los Angeles protests
during tense standoffs with police in riot gear. Over two days 42
individuals were taken into custody. Rallies in other cities were
even more intense.
In San Francisco last Monday, hundreds of peace activists
““ billing the conflict with Iraq as “The war to end all
peace” ““ moved through the city performing everything
from building sit-ins to Buddhist chants to curbside yoga in
voicing their displeasure at the war and causing San Francisco
police to arrest as many as 120 protesters by early afternoon.
It marked the fourth time in five days that San Francisco has
been the focus of anti-war demonstrations. The majority of
demonstrators rallied at the downtown federal building and the
Transamerica Pyramid Building, where the West Coast division of the
Carlyle Group, a firm with holdings in the media and defense
industries, is headquartered.
“These buildings we’re targeting are directly
implicated in the war,” explained Josh Herbez, a volunteer
with the ANSWER Coalition, an international peace group. “In
a larger sense, it also shows that we as citizens of San Francisco
are not willing to let things continue as normal in the face of
this war.”
Protesters attacked the U.S. government in what has become the
traditional anti-war strain, accusing the Bush administration of
being driven by economic interests, ignoring world opinion, and
murdering the Iraqi people.
With reports from Daily Bruin wire services.