Oct. 11, 2001
News
Page 9
Hundreds of students at Berkley protest U.S. bombings
Sandra Gonzales
Knight Ridder Tribue
SAN JOSE, Calif. - One day af
ter the United States began its
counter-attack against the Taliban,
Berkeley college students, true to
form, rallied against the bombing.
And, as usual, there were opin
ions everywhere as faculty and stu
dents gathered at Sproul Plaza on
the University of Califomia-Berke-
ley campus where a noon rally or
ganized by Berkeley Stop the War
Coalition encouraged students to
walk-out of class.
Though organizers said they ex
pected thousands of students, po
lice put the crowd at about 500
people.
"We mourn the loss of innocent
lives," said Ly-Hong Nguyen, with
the Asian and Pacific Islanders Coa
lition Against War. Nguyen urged
the crowd to stand in solidarity with
the Arabs, Muslims and Middle
Easterners. "We demand the U.S.
stop bombing Afghanistan,"
Nguyen shouted.
One by one, speakers spoke out
for peace and against war, while a
smaller, albeit loud contingent of
students in the crowd, drowned out
some of the anti-war protesters with
jeers and a competing chant: "Hey,
hey, ho, ho, the Taliban has got to
go."
His voice hoarse from debating
anti-war protesters, Patrick
Davidson made no secret where his
sentiments lay as he held a sign high
over his head with a banner that
read "They are fighting for you."
"They're not bombing innocent
people, they're bombing the Taliban
military operations. The Taliban has
chosen to be our enemies,"
Davidson, 19, told an anti-war pro
tester.
His protestations did little to per
suade the woman, who eventually
left in apparent disgust. But
Davidson continued as anti-war
protesters debated him one by one.
Meanwhile, John Behrs, 20, a
fellow student who shared
Davidson's sentiment waved a flag.
"You usually just hear one voice out
here, we wanted to show the other
side," Behrs said.
By far a larger contigent of stu
dents denounced the war with the
fervor typical of Berkeley students.
"I think the bombing by the U.S.
government is going to create more
of a humanitarian crisis in Afghani
stan," said Hoku Jeffrey, 24. "It's
going to worsen an already bad situ
ation and we're going to see more
racial attacks on Arabs."
Many wore green arm bands that
stood for solidarity with Arab, Mus
lim and Middle Easterners, and
identified those that would come to
the aid of any of such person fac
ing racist harassment or attacks.
Though the crowd dwindled af
ter the noon hour, with small groups
still singing, and debating one an
other, protesters promised more
anti-war rallies to come with yet
another planned for later that
evening at a downtown Berkeley
BART station.
No arrests were reported at
Monday's noon rally.
Meanwhile there are other peace
demonstrations in the Bay Area.
A small group of Fremont, Ca
lif,, activists said they will partici
pate in a vigil for peace from 6-7
p.m. daily through Friday at the in
tersection of Fremont Boulevard
and Mowry Avenue.
"I think this is the most impor
tant place in the nation to have a
peace vigil because of the Afghan
community here," said vigil orga
nizer Monica Vincent of Fremont's
large Afgham population.
The Peninsula Peace and Justice
Center will also participate in daily
peace demonstrations at 5 p.m. ev
ery evening this week starting at the
intersection of El Camino Real and
Embarcadero Road.
© 2001, San Jose Mercury News
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tri-
bune Information Services.
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