[PEN-L:6047] Tens of thousands join Kosovo peace rally in Rome

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

ROME, April 24 (AFP) - Tens of thousands of people took to the streets
in Italian cities Saturday in rallies for a "fair peace" in Kosovo and
against racism.

In Rome, organizers said the demonstration, called by Prime Minister
Massimo D'Alema's Social Democrats, drew 150,000 people in spite of
driving rain but other estimates said the peaceful march was attended
by 50,000, mostly students.

A banner preceding the march read "Outlaw War" and "Peace on the
Balkans."

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, former Israeli prime minister
Shimon Peres, Lea Rabin, widow of slain Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin,
and former French culture minister Jack Lang were to address the rally
later Saturday.

Demonstrators carried red flags of D'Alema's ruling party, and
pictures of Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara and Palestinian
flags were also seen.

Several thousand Italian protesters, mainly students, staged
demonstrations in Genoa, Milan and Naples to protest NATO's air
campaign against Yugoslavia, police said.

In Milan, demonstrators threw colored smoke bombs toward the guarded
US embassy and burned an Italian flag to protest Italy's participation
in NATO's operation, dubbed Allied Force.

In Naples, some 500 protesters, according to police estimates,
demonstrated in front of both the public television building and near
NATO's southern command headquarters.

In each instance, protesters pinned paper targets to their clothes
like the ones that have become a symbol of solidarity among Serbs in
Belgrade.

Most of the banners were hostile to NATO and the Italian government.

In Genoa, some 1,500 people demonstrated peacefully, police said.

The rallies were organised by pacifist associations and the Italian
communist party.

Anti-NATO sentiment has grown as NATO's targets, initially only
military, have been widened to include civilian buildings in Belgrade.

An attack on the Serbian state television headquarters overnight
Thursday drew loud criticism in Italy, in particular from Italian
Foreign Minister Lambertino Dini. The bombing in downtown Belgrade
killed at least 10 people and left 18 wounded, according to the
Yugoslav government. Some 20 people remained unaccounted for on
Saturday as rescue workers searched the rubble for survivors.