[Marxism] Tens of thousands in Iraq demand withdrawal of occupation troops

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

  MSNBC.com
Thousands protest U.S. on Baghdad anniversary
Demonstrators demand end to presence of foreign troops

The Associated Press
Updated: 6:06 a.m. ET April 9, 2005


BAGHDAD, Iraq - Tens of thousands of Shiites marked the anniversary of
the fall of Baghdad with a protest against American troops at the same
square where jubilant crowds toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein two
years ago.

The protesters back radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi
Army militiamen led uprisings last year against U.S. troops before
signing truces with U.S.-led forces.

Held in the shadow of the Sheraton and Palestine hotels - home to
foreign journalists and contractors - the protest reflected frustration
both with the U.S. government, which is slowly handing security
responsibilities to Iraqi forces, and anger toward the Sunni Arab-led
insurgency.

"This huge gathering shows that the Iraqi people have the strength and
faith to protect their country and liberate it from the occupiers," said
protester Ahmed Abed, a 26-year-old who sells spare car parts.

U.S. officials have said they won't set a timetable for withdrawal,
promising to stay until Iraqi forces are able to secure the country.

Protesters focus ire on Bush, Blair
The protesters filled Firdos Square and spilled onto nearby avenues,
waving Iraqi flags. Mimicking the famous images of U.S. soldiers and
Iraqis pulling down a statue of Saddam as Baghdad fell, protesters
toppled effigies of President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair
and Saddam - all dressed in red Iraqi prison jumpsuits that signified
they had been condemned to death.

Other effigies of Bush and Saddam were burned.

"Force the occupation to leave from our country," one banner read in
English.

Protesters also called for Saddam to face justice and held up framed
photos of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite
cleric, a spiritual leader to the Shiite population of roughly 60
percent of Iraq's 26 million people.

Demonstrators carried a symbolic coffin, draped with an Iraqi flag, and
swung from a statue said to represent freedom and constructed on the
pedestal where Saddam's statue once stood. Robed and turbaned Shiite
clerics were seen among the crowd.

No violence was reported, although late Friday a senior al-Sadr official
who had arrived from Karbala to take part in the protest was gunned down
in the New Baghdad neighborhood. Fadhil al-Shawky died in the attack on
his car. Two others were wounded.

U.S. and Iraqi security forces kept a close eye on the march, with U.S.
soldiers standing behind blast walls topped with barbed wire and armed
soldiers watching from rooftops.

Returning to center stage
Al-Sadr had stayed out of the limelight since leading failed uprisings
last year in the southern city of Najaf and in Baghdad's Sadr City
neighborhood.

But he has stepped up criticism of the United States in recent weeks,
mainly by organizing Saturday's protest, which fell far short of the 1
million people he hoped would assemble.

Officials organized the demonstration with the Iraqi Interior Ministry's
promise of protection. A group of protesters and police spent all night
securing the square. Roads in central Baghdad were closed to traffic as
streets filled with people.

Sunni Muslim clerics also called on their followers to protest on the
two year anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, but officials in the
influential Association of Muslim Scholars refused to say Saturday where
or when the protests would take place. Iraq's Sunni minority was
dominant under Saddam and is believed to make up the backbone of the
country's insurgency.

Jalil al-Shemari, a senior al-Sadr official, said the Sunnis would not
be joining in the Shiite rally at Firdos Square.

During his Friday morning sermon in the capital, the head of an
influential Sunni group accused coalition forces of "killing the Iraqi
people daily."

"We demand that the occupation troops withdraw from Iraq. We don't want
them to do it immediately, but we want them to set a timetable for their
withdrawal," said Sheik Harith al-Dahri, whose Association of Muslim
Scholars is believed to have ties to Iraq's insurgents.

Other marches were held across the country to demand that the United
States set a timetable for its withdrawal. In the central city of
Ramadi, thousands of protestors demonstrated in the al-Sufayaa
neighborhood and at Anbar University, demanding that U.S.-led coalition
forces set a withdrawal date.

Also Saturday, in the troubled northern city of Mosul, a car bomb
detonated near a police patrol, killing at least two policemen and
injuring 13 civilians, Dr. Baha al-Deen al-Bakry of the Jumhouri
hospital said.

C 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
C 2005 MSNBC.com

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7430272/


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