POLITICS-AUSTRALIA: ‘Not in Our Name’, Protesters Say of Iraq War

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Sonny Inbaraj

PERTH, Australia, Mar 20 2003 (IPS) - Thousands of Australians Thursday walked out of their homes, schools and workplaces to join an emotional wave of protests, and rowdy scenes erupted in Parliament as the U.S.-led – and Australia-supported – war against Iraq began.

The largest turnout was in Melbourne where students joined unionists, religious and community groups and rock singers in a 20,000-strong rally outside the State Library. The Melbourne protest spread several blocks.

In Sydney, a similar number rallied in the city centre and in Perth, some 5,000 protesters gathered in the central business district and marched to the U.S. consulate carrying banners with the words ”Not In Our Name", "George Bush Go to Hell" and "Shame on (Prime Minister John) Howard”.

Fifteen protesters from the No War Alliance were arrested outside the U.S. consulate when they laid down on the main road and refused to disperse despite a police order.

The demonstrators chanted ”We Want Peace" and sang Bob Marley’s "Get Up Stand Up" when scores of police, wielding batons forcefully dragged them into waiting vans.

Mounted police held back the crowd when they tried to surge forward to help the 15 arrested protesters.

The outbreak of war came just minutes before question time in the Federal Parliament and there were rowdy scenes, including protests from the public galleries, when Howard revealed that Australian FA-18 hornet jets were already flying missions to escort other aircraft over Iraq.

"The FA-18 hornet aircraft have started operations over Iraq. They’re conducting missions to escort high-value coalition tanker and airborne early warning and control aircraft," Howard told Parliament as the United States started firing cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs against targets in Baghdad.

Opposition Labor MPs then rowdily interjected and jeered Howard, prompting Foreign Minister Alexander Downer to shout back: "You’re supposed to be the leader of a political party, not a child in a primary school. You behave like a child in a primary school on a major international issue."

Anthony Albanese, a Labor frontbencher replied: "What we have to remember is that this isn’t a video. It’s not a movie. It’s real."

"What the lights in the sky represent is the death of Iraqi civilians, something for which I think Australia is taking part much to our shame,” he argued.

Australia is the first country apart from the United States and Britain with troops in the Gulf. Canberra has 2,000 personnel in the Gulf joining over 300,000 US and British soldiers, 1,000 combat aircraft and five aircraft carrier battle groups.

Joe MacDonald, deputy secretary of the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union, said Perth construction workers started downing their tools when they heard the war announcement from the White House.

"By eleven in the morning some 2,000 construction workers were involved in strike action on their sites," he told the Perth rally.

At several high schools in Perth, students walked out of classes when they heard the war announcement and were seen lingering around the protest site in their uniforms.

"More and more people are asking the question, and more and more are seeking the answers because they see that this atrocity of declaring war on Iraq by (U.S. President) George Bush, (British Prime Minister) Tony Blair and Howard has nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction," said Greens Legislative Assembly member Dee Margets.

In a televised address to the nation Thursday evening, Howard said it was a difficult decision to send Australian troops to the war, but he believed it was in the national interest.

"If Iraq is allowed to keep these weapons (of mass destruction), not only might she use them again, but moreover other rogue countries will copy Iraq, knowing that the world will do nothing to stop them," he said.

"And the more countries that have these weapons, countries run by despotic regimes, the greater becomes the likelihood that these weapons will fall into the hands of terrorists," he added.

But Labor Opposition leader Simon Crean said the prime minister’s decision was reckless and exposed Australia to an increased risk of a terrorist attack.

"This is a sad day, sad day for the world, it’s a tragic day for Australia, we are now involved in a conflict we should never have been in and we’re going to become a target as a consequence of it," he said.

"This is a reckless, dangerous act and the prime minister should be hanging his head in shame as a result of that," added Crean.