Peace campaigners unite around the globe

Hardened activists, families and people making their first gestures of public protest joined in global demonstrations against war in Iraq.

Police in Athens fired tear gas in clashes with several hundred anarchists who smashed store windows and threw a gasoline bomb at a newspaper office.

In Syria, a nation on the front line if war comes, some 200,000 protesters marched through Damascus.

In Germany, Bulgaria, Russia, South Korea, Australia, Malaysia and Thailand, demonstrations attracted thousands, while the crowds were in the hundreds or less in cities in Bosnia, Hong Kong, Indian-controlled Kashmir and Moscow.

Anti-war activists hoped to draw 100,000 people out on the streets in New York City later today.

Protesters in Damascus chanted anti-US and anti-Israeli slogans as they marched to the People’s Assembly.

Najjah Attar, a former Syrian cabinet minister who joined in the protest, accused Washington of attempting to change the region’s map.

“The US wants to encroach upon our own norms, concepts and principles,” she said. “They are reminding us of the Nazi and fascist times.”

Braving biting cold and snow flurries in the Ukraine, some 2,000 people rallied in Kiev’s central square. Anti-globalists led a peaceful “Rock Against War” protest joined by communists, socialists, Kurds and pacifists.

In the Bosnian city of Mostar, about a hundred Muslims and Croats united in a demonstration against the war – the first such cross-community action in seven years. Ethnic divisions in Mostar, 45 miles southwest of Sarajevo, remain tense despite the 1995 peace agreement that ended Bosnia’s war.

Several thousand protesters in Athens unfurled a giant banner across the wall of the ancient Acropolis – “Nato, US and EU equals War” – before heading toward the US Embassy. Clashes erupted after anarchists wearing hoods and crash helmets broke away from an otherwise peaceful march.

In the Greek port of Thessaloniki, the anti-war turnout was estimated at 10,000 people.

About 2,000 demonstrators rallied in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital. In Moscow, 300 people marched to the US Embassy, with one placard urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to ”be firmer with America.”

Six hundred people rallied in downtown Hong Kong, as did 50 or so in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Police in Srinagar in Indian-controlled Kashmir detained at least 35 protesters after about a hundred people, mostly supporters of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), marched through the city.

Demonstrators clogged a downtown park in Seoul, South Korea, to chant and listen to a series of anti-war speeches.

War opponents also planned a protest of up to 100,000 people near the United Nations in New York. Police were planning extensive security that included sharpshooters and radiation detectors.

The day of protest began in New Zealand, where thousands gathered in cities across the country.

Over Auckland harbour, a plane trailed a huge banner reading “No War – Peace Now,” at the America’s Cup sailing competition.

A crowd estimated at between 3,000 and 5,000 marched through a suburb of Canberra, the Australian capital, to protest the country’s support for US policy. Australia has already committed 2,000 troops to the Persian Gulf for possible action.

In Tokyo, where 6,000 protested on Friday, about 300 activists gathered near the US Embassy this afternoon.

Many of the demonstrators in Asia expressed scepticism that Iraq posed a threat to world security, saying instead that President Bush’s policy against the Middle Eastern country was just a way to extend American control over oil reserves.

“We must stop the war as it is part of the United States’ plot for global domination,” protest organiser Nasir Hashim told 1,500 cheering activists outside the US Embassy in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

Other groups gathered in Bangkok, Taipei, and Singapore. In Bangkok, as many as 2,000 people marched with banners to the US Embassy. The crowd included a large contingent of Thai Muslims and Westerners, and several Buddhist monks and nuns.