ZAGREB, Feb 15 (Hina) - Residents of a dozen Croatian towns on Saturday joined, along with the residents of Zagreb, global protests against war in Iraq.
ZAGREB, Feb 15 (Hina) - Residents of a dozen Croatian towns on
Saturday joined, along with the residents of Zagreb, global
protests against war in Iraq. #L#
The protests, which included the signing of petitions against war
in Iraq and, in some towns, against Croatia's joining NATO, were
organised in Pula, Split, Rijeka, Dubrovnik, Osijek, Zadar, Knin
and Vukovar. A similar protest was held in Rijeka yesterday, while
the residents of Sibenik today organised only the signing of the
petition.
The Pula rally gathered the most attendants, some 1,000.
The gathered were addressed by writer Miljenko Jergovic, who said
that "an attack on Iraq is the same as an attack on Rome".
Attending the rally were many politicians and party leaders,
including Istria County prefect and Istrian Democratic Assembly
(IDS) leader Ivan Jakovcic, Pula mayor Luciano Delbianco, Liberal
Party vice-president Helena Stimac Radin and MPs Furio Radin and
Lucija Debeljuh.
Jakovcic told reporters he had not signed either of the two
petitions because he supported Croatia's joining NATO and believed
that the United Nations should decide about military operations.
The protesters carried banners with messages "Iraq Today, ?
Tomorrow", "It's Better To Be Active Today Than Radioactive
Tomorrow".
A coordinating body of seven non-government associations from
Dubrovnik organised a rally under the name "The Eleventh Hour". "We
believe that any state is part of the international system and that
nobody makes decisions on their own," it was stated at the rally.
Speakers at the rally recalled a protest against war in Croatia
which was held at the same place in January 1991, when Mother
Teresa's message to the then US President George Bush ahead of the
Gulf War was read out.
The Centre for Peace, Non-Violence and Human Rights organised a
rally in downtown Osijek, which gathered some 200 protesters. There
were no incidents, apart from a group of young men who trampled on
the US flag for several minutes.
The rally was also attended by county prefect Ladislav Bognar.
A prominent Croatian intellectual, Olga Carevic, forwarded a
personal statement against war in Iraq, warning that a possible war
would affect many innocent people, sending rivers of refugees into
the unknown. Confident that "words are man's strongest weapon",
Carevic called for the peaceful solution of the Iraqi crisis.
(hina) rml