Anti-war Protestors Take to the Streets

Anti-war protestors across the world took to the streets this weekend, demonstrating against a looming US-led war on Iraq.

In Germany, peace protestors marched through the cities of Tübingen and Rostock, while thousands joined anti-war protests in Paris.

More than 4,000 people attended a peace concert in Tokyo, while hundreds of schoolchildren joined protestors in Pakistan. Further demonstrations took place in Syria, Egypt, Russia, Britain, Argentina and Mexico, culminating in a giant peace rally in Washington on Saturday.

Afraid that the U.S. may jump to war following latest revelations from U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix that Iraq was not giving his team "genuine co-operation" in their search for weapons of mass destruction, the protests are just a start in what analysts say is a growing opposition to President Bush's stance on Iraq.

"Serious and troubling"findings

But even as 50, 000 people gathered on the National Mall in the centre of Washington, the US government continued with its build-up of US troops in the Gulf region.

The White House has seized on the recent discovery of empty chemical warheads in Iraq as evidence of non-compliance, calling their finding "serious and troubling." But so far, U.N. chief inspector Hans Blix, who travels to Iraq on Sunday for further talks with Iraqi officials, has played down the significance of the find.

Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed El Baredei, who is accompanying Blix to Iraq, said shortly before his departure that Iraq would have to cooperate, and that if they did not, the consequences would not "be very pleasant."

On January 27, Blix and El Baraedei are due to deliver a key report to the U.N. Security Council on the results of the inspectors' search for weapons of mass destruction.

Washington has made no clear decision as to whether it will attack Iraq. However, it has described January 27 as an "important date," and has rejected the need for a second U.N. resolution to authorise an attack.

German leaders still say no

Following the discovery of the hidden warheads in Iraq and some 3,000 undisclosed documents apparently relating to nuclear weapons technology in an Iraqi scientist's home, German cabinet members have renewed their pledges not to participate in any military intervention in Iraq.

On Friday, German Defense Minister Peter Struck came forward as the first member of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's cabinet to say it is unlikely Germany would vote in favor of military action against Iraq in the United Nations Security Council. Struck told the Rheinpfalz newspaper no decision could be made before the issue is presented in the Security Council, but that "he couldn't, in principle, imagine a 'yes' vote at this point." He added that the diplomatic goal should be to prevent a war in Iraq.

In an interview with the Tagesspiegel newspaper on Sunday, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer reiterated Germany's position that it would not participate in any war against Iraq -- even under a U.N. mandate. "I have come across an increasingly number people who behind closed doors agree to our position," he said.

The foreign minister's statements come at a time when opposition in Germany against a war in Iraq war is growing. This week, the chairman of the Council of Protestant Churches in Germany, Manfred Kock, restated his church's "strict" rejection of any war and called on church members to conduct demonstrations on the scale of protests during the Gulf War 12 years ago.

A poll released this week by German public broadcaster ARD and Infratest-Dimap found that 76 percent of Germans don't believe the country should vote in favor of a war against Iraq at the U.N. Security Council.

The only voices in favor of a war in Germany these days seems to be from the conservative opposition. Wolfgang Schäuble, vice chairmen of the Christian Democrat Union's parliamentary group, said on Friday that Germany should support the U.S.-led initiatives in the United Nations.

"If there's no other alternative, Germany should vote 'yes' at the Security Council," Schäuble said. "But as long as there's still a chance to achieve the goal without going to war, I would always prefer that."