10 April 2003 Edition

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War Summit protests

PSNI riot squads were rushed to the road leading into the village of Hillsborough on Monday evening 7 April to block thousands of anti-war demonstrators who tried to march on Hillsborough Castle in protest against the visit of US president George W Bush to Ireland.

Bush had travelled to Hillsborough to hold a 'war council' with his British ally Tony Blair.

Anti-war protesters from across Ireland and some from England, Scotland and Wales travelled to Sprucefield, between Belfast and Hillsborough for a march and rally against the meeting.

The demonstrators marched along the A1 dual carriageway and were to hold a rally just short of the road to Hillsborough, but a large section of the crowd surged past the platform and headed to the Hillsborough Road, where they were confronted by the PSNI riot squads.

After an hour, the crowd moved back to the main rally site, where speakers, including Sinn Féin's Mitchel McLaughlin, addressed the crowd.

At a second anti-war rally in Belfast City Centre on Tuesday 8 April, 14 demonstrators were arrested after PSNI riot squads moved against people who were blocking the road in front of the City Hall.

A blind man was amongst those arrested.

At Monday night's Dublin City Council meeting, an emergency motion was passed unanimously by councillors calling on An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to convey to the President of the US, George Bush, "the overwhelming view of the Irish people that the war in Iraq is unjust and unjustified."

The motion called on "all parties and groups represented in City Hall to take the unique opportunity of the visits of Mr Blair and Mr Bush, to convey to them both the very strong opposition here to the war".


Derry protests Bush visit





On Monday 7 April ant-war protesters remodelled landmarks in Derry City as a protest against the British and United States invasion of Iraq and the first ever visit to the Six Counties by US President George W Bush.

The statue of the Celtic goddess Macha at Altnagelvin Hospital was transformed into a shrine with burning candles, while the Derry Tappers statue at Carlisle Circus was bedecked with a mock Raytheon missile.

Three demonstrators were arrested after covering the former Fort George, British army base with anti-war graffiti.

Protesters also covered Free Derry Corner with a black shroud in the early hours of Monday 7 April in protest at the visit.

Dr Robbie McVeigh, a spokesperson for Foyle Ethical Investment Campaign, said it was "the final ignominy that United States President George Bush should visit the North to hold a a war summit with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the guise of a peace summit on the North.

"Thousands of Iraqi civilians have already been killed and maimed by Raytheon weapons, including Cruise and Patriot missiles and also cluster bombs. This is the final ignominy, a peace summit in Ireland providing cover for the illegal war ongoing in Iraq."

 

Sectarian attacks during Belfast pro-war rally



Pro-war demonstrators attacked a number of business premises and individuals during a pro-Bush and pro-war rally in Belfast city centre on Monday night.

Two Catholic pubs and a taxi company were targeted and passers-by were assaulted by a group who had marched from the loyalist Shankill area through the largely nationalist Castle Street and King Street area of the city. Passing vehicles were also attacked.

The 300-strong pro-Bush and pro-war rally had been organised by a senior member of the Unionist party, Sir John Gorman, a former British soldier. Ian Paisley, leader of the DUP, was pictured at the rally standing alongside a woman carrying a placard which bore the slogan, Baghdad, Basra, Crossmaglen? The apparent implication of the placard was to urge the British Army to 'deal' with republican areas of the North (Crossmaglen) in a similar way to Basra.

Meanwhile, a small group of loyalists, including members of the UDA, waved British flags and chanted anti-Catholic and pro-war slogans on the fringes of the large anti-war protest at Hillsborough Castle organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the anti-war movement.

There are also reports of UDA members and individuals associated with Combat 18 'trawling' Belfast in cars looking for anti-war protesters who could be attacked. Combat 18 is an extreme right-wing British fascist organisation with links to loyalist paramilitaries. Extreme loyalist websites were also urging attacks on anti-war protesters.

On Tuesday at approximately 1.45pm, riot police arrested a number of demonstrators who had sat down on one lane of the roadway outside Belfast City Hall during a trade union rally against the presence of the US President in Ireland. Protesters complained about the behaviour of some of the riot police. In particular, several witnesses told the Pat Finucane Centre that one officer dragged a young woman off the roadway by the hair.

 


An Phoblacht
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