8 November 2001 Edition

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3,000 demonstrate against Afghanistan war

An estimated 3,000 people marched through the streets of Dublin last Saturday to protest the war in Afghanistan, where, according to Labour Party TD Michael D Higgins, "one of the world's most technologically advanced nation is bombing some of the most oppressed and poorest people in the world".

The march was organised by the Irish Anti-War Movement, a broad umbrella group, which drew protestors from the four corners of Ireland.

Sinn Féin Councillor Larry O'Toole, Labour TD Michael D Higgins, Green Party TD John Gormley, Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins and Kieran Allen of the Socialist Workers, spoke on behalf of their organisations.

There were also powerful speeches by Richard Becker from the Anti War Movement in the US, who spoke of the thousands who had protested in San Francisco and in Washington against the war, and Maggie Ronayne from the International Women Count Network based in Galway.

"Above all it is the women and their children who have suffered terrible privation, starvation in the drought and famine, displacement and now the bombing by the US, in this terrible and unnecessary war of retribution and punishment of an innocent and suffering people," she said.

Many speakers pointed to the opportunity lost by Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, who last month held the chair of the UN Security Council. "This was an opportunity for Ireland to ensure that the UN took up its responsibility to stop armed conflict and to impose resolution of conflict through peaceful means," said Larry O'Toole. "Minister Cowen had the opportunity to bring the experience of the Peace Process in Ireland to the world stage and to move the global agenda from terror and retribution against innocent people, to peaceful negotiation and the settlement of conflict. In this, Minister Cowen failed us all."


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