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Protests Continue Around the World
Charlie Counselman
Staff Writer
Protesters hung dirty shoes and san
dals around the necks of cardboard mod
els of George W. Bush outside the door
ways of houses throughout Bangladesh.
Angry teenagers in Calcutta vented their
rage at a Nike outlet store. And in Arab
nations, rage was accompanied by denial
as U.S. troops entered Baghdad.
As the U.S.-led assault on Iraq closed
in on Baghdad, war protesters across the
Muslim world turned out in smaller num
bers than previous weeks but with a fresh
supply of anti-U.S. sentiment.
U.S. troops invaded Baghdad over the
weekend and now occupy most of the city,
although some resistance remains. Com
bat in the capital city claimed the lives of
over 1,000 Iraqi troops, while the U.S. troop
death toll reached 91 on Tuesday.
In the Middle East, skepticism about
the accuracy of the news reporting in Iraq
is first on the mind of many.
"The Americans have been lying a lot
since the beginning of this campaign so I
don't believe them," said Hisham Moniyyeh,
27, to the Associated Press Monday morn
ing while working in his currency exchange
shop in Sidon, Lebanon.
In Cairo, Egypt, a man on the street
expressed skepticism about the success
of a U.S. occupation of Baghdad.
"It is a psychological war. If it is true,
then it is only a military strategy, to lure
the American forces into a trap."
"The Americans can never stay in
Baghdad," said a 23-year-old hairdresser
in Syria. "Baghdad is noble Arab land."
Traffic halted for several hours on Fri
day afternoon in Bahrain's capital city,
Manama, as 7,000 protesters carrying min
iature models of scud missiles marched
through the streets chanting "Children are
dying, women are dying, let's go on jihad."
Palestinian protesters in the West
Bank held rallies in Gaza City and Nablus
JVC-MUA.
with attendance in the thousands each. Wav
ing Iraqi and Palestinian flags while burning
Israeli and American flags, the protesters
held a mock funeral featuring a coffin with
"U.N. Security Council" written on it.
In Calcutta, India, about 200 students
destroyed a Nike outlet shop. The store's
windows were smashed and the showroom
temporarily occupied by teenagers shout
ing anti-U.S. and anti-war slogans.
"We will move from house to house in
the city to urge people across the state to
boycott the products which are brought
to our country from the U.S. and the U.K.,"
said 15-year-old protester Asgar Ali to an
Agence-France Press reporter.
"We are feeling insecure," said Kamal
Jain, a spokesman of the Nike shop. "We are
not sure whether we will be able to reopen
the shop under the circumstances."
An ancient Persian proverb claims the
Pakistani city of Multan is best known for
heat, dust, beggars, and burial grounds.
On Friday, Apr. 4, protesters were added
to that list, as one of the oldest continu
ously inhabited cities on earth was host
to the largest anti-war protest of the week,
drawing an estimated 50,000 people to
this little known yet historically significant
city of about 1 million.
After finishing Friday afternoon prayers,
tens of thousands of Muslims in the small,
crowded city in central Pakistan marched
through the streets holding signs and burn
ing effigies of George W. Bush and Tony Blair.
An organizer addressing the crowd
urged them to prepare for holy war against
"American infidels."
Bangladesh's Independence Day cel
ebrations were limited because most of the
nation's police and security personnel had
to patrol daily anti-war protests. Instead,
garlands of dirty shoes adorned effigies of
Bush. In Bangladesh, where city streets are
frequently dotted with cow patties, the soil
having absorbed at least four millennia of
feces, shoes placed on a body are meant to
show the utmost disrespect.
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April 11, 2003
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