by Deborah Haynes
LONDON - Thousands of people gathered at Speaker`s Corner in London`s Hyde Park Saturday brandishing posters denouncing the "war on terror", marking the second anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Pictures of US President George W. Bush under the title "World`s Number One Terrorist" and banners saying "No War in Iran" mingled with others warning British Prime Minister Tony Blair that people would not vote for him in an expected general election in May due to his support for the invasion.
Some 100,000 people were expected to march through central London to protest against the Iraq war and other elements of the US-led war on terror, organisers said. Police early Saturday afternoon estimated the crowd at 10,000 to 20,000.
Starting at Speaker`s Corner and ending at Trafalgar Square, the demonstrators will hear speeches by anti-war campaigners such as the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, and former Guantanamo Bay inmate Martin Mubanga and place a coffin in front of the US embassy.
It will be the first mass demonstration outside the building since it became a flashpoint of anti-Vietnam War protests in 1968, the organisers said.
"We need help to make this demonstration as big as possible" the action group, which organised Saturday`s rally, Stop The War Coalition, said on its website.
"With rumours of an attack on Iran in June and the demonstration being a matter of weeks before the general election it would be fantastic to have many hundreds of thousands of people expressing their anti-war sentiment," it said.
Campaigners with loudspeakers called on people to rally in protest against the "war on terror" and also urged them to gather again in Scotland in July when Blair is due to host a Group of Eight meeting of industrialised countries as president of the G8.
"I want to stop the war, I am from China and we are probably next on (Bush`s) list after Syria and Iran," said Laurence Wong, 48, a teacher living in London who was calling on people to sign a petition to stop any attack on Iran and Syria.
"Today`s demonstration is going to be a surprise for the government and for the national newspapers because they thought we had forgotten our anger at the war but we most definitely have not," he said.
"I want to stop the war on terror and this can only be done through a mass movement of people from across the world," said Moira Nolan, 35, a member of the Stop The War Coalition, the action group that organised the peaceful rally.
"Before Britain went to war in Iraq about 48 percent of the public supported the war now that figure is down to 29 percent," she said.
The Iraq war would feature prominently in people`s mind in the upcoming general election, which is widely expected to be called for May 5, said Nolan.
"Blair wanted to push this issue from the front pages but the British public will not let that happen," she said.
People poured into the capital from across the country, including 29-year-old human rights author Susanna Akono who travelled in a coach from Kent.
"The war on terror is wrong because it is not going to end terrorism when you have people such as Iyad Allawi (Iraq`s outgoing prime minister) being put in power," she said, an anti-war poster in her hand.
Akono from Cambodia who is married to a British man and is pregnant, said that she planned to go on a hunger strike from April 14 in protest of the continuing war on terror.
"I want to do everything I can to make sure my child has a secure future," she said.
03/19/2005 13:49 GMT