ZAGREB HOLDS MAIN CROATIAN ANTI-WAR PROTEST RALLY

ZAGREB, Feb 15 (Hina) - Croatia knows war, having been through one, and does not want it on anyone -- this is the message organisers of the main Croatian rally against a U.S. attack on Iraq sent to the world from Zagreb on Saturday. #L# Today Croatia is part of the world's anti-war family as protests against a war in Iraq are being held in almost 600 cities world- wide, Ivana Percl told some 10,000 people on Ban Jelacic Square on behalf of the rally's organiser, the civil initiative "Enough of Wars". "We know what war is, we've been through one, and we don't want it on others," she said, reiterating "America is not Bush, just like Iraq is not Saddam". The rally was then addressed by Ivan Supek, leader of the Alliance for a Third Croatia, who said the danger of weapons of mass destruction was indeed real and big but that it was not new, having existed for more than 50 years. "Why have we peacemakers been seeking the only possible solution, which is the general and absolute disarmament of all countries," said Supek, receiving a round of rapturous applause. He recalled the United Nations Charter allowed for only a defense war and said the planned U.S. attack on Iraq "is neither a defence nor a prevention war". "We must not let the EU and the U.N. become instruments of American and multinational aggression," Supek said, adding the world was not threatened only by weapons of mass destruction but increasingly more so by general globalisation, which he said served to make the rich richer and the poor even poorer. "We don't want our government to support and participate in such globalisation." Actress and anti-war activist Ursa Raukar said she was "saddened by the fact that Croatia, as a country which has gone through such a difficult aggression, is today one of only 18 allies Bush has in the whole world". "We seek that Racan and his government stop calculating once and for all and withdraw their signature from the Vilnius Group statement, so that the world will not view Croatia as one of the so few countries supporting an attack on Iraq." The rally's organisers enabled all who were interested to sign a petition urging the government to withdraw the signature from the document. Many at the rally carried banners reading "UN = Bush Ltd", "Say 'Yes' to Non-BUSHing" -- a pun on Croatian-language non-smoking campaigns, "Bush, Buy A Bike", and "Politicians into the Trenches". The organisers envisaged that after the rally the protesters would march towards the U.S. Embassy nearby, where tight specialist police were deployed there before the rally began. Rallies against a war on Iraq were also staged in Osijek, Vukovar, Ivanec, Knin, Zadar, Sibenik, Split, and Dubrovnik, and in Rijeka yesterday. (hina) ha