Welcome to BASE21

by Christian / Base21 Media Activists
dvs-b@t-online.de

Realizing that they escaped from a dictator iron grip to a U.S. occupation grip, scores of Iraqis shouted their rejection of the U.S. military presence in front of American marines deployed around Baghdad's Palestine Hotel and in An-Najaf Wednesday, April 16.

"We want real freedom…The Iraqi people themselves must choose their rulers," AFP quoted one of the angry demonstrators as saying.

In the southern Iraqi city of An-Najaf, some 3,000 people took to the streets to demonstrate support for the center of Shiite religious learning and call on all Shiite groups to stand shoulder to shoulder in the face of the U.S.-led occupation, an AFP reporter said.

The marchers carried portraits of Ayatollah Ali Sistani, foremost Shiite religious authority in An-Najaf, of Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, a senior religious leader assassinated in 1999, ostensibly by the deposed regime of Saddam Hussein, and of Sadr's son Muqtada.

"The demonstration is designed to express support for the religious school of An-Najaf and denounce the plots hatched against it," the imam of Samawa, Sheikh Kadhem al-Addawi, told the marchers.

In Basra, Iraqis came in droves to protest the presence of the U.K. troops and the setting-up of a new pro-U.S. civil administration in Iraq’s second largest city, Al-Jazeera reported.

Demonstrators Occupy British Airways In Athens

In Athens, around 100 anti-war protesters occupied the offices of British Airways in Athens on Wednesday morning in a protest against the presence in the Greek capital of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, AFP said.

Blair was here for an informal summit of European Union leaders, the first since the fall of the Iraqi regime, ahead of the signing of the accession treaties of the EU's 10 members-in-waiting.

The demonstrators prevented employees from entering the airline's offices in the suburbs and unfurled a banner denouncing Britain's involvement in the U.S. intervention in Iraq.

Demonstrators, as well as the main Greek trades union confederation GSEE, have announced mass demonstrations for Wednesday to protest against the "undesirable" presence of Blair and his Italian and Spanish counterparts.

More than 10,000 police have been mobilized to ensure security and more than half the city has been barred to traffic and demonstrators.

Riot police also tried to disperse demonstrators during clashes in an anti-war demonstration outside the Greek Parliament.

Egyptian Students Ready For Martyrdom

In Cairo, some 300 students gathered last Wednesday on the campus of Cairo University saying they were ready to carry out 'martyrdom operations' against Americans and U.S. interests.

The students, their heads covered with Palestinian scarves, marched around the university buildings shouting "With our blood, with our souls, we will defend Islam".

Some of the students wore green headbands inscribed with the word "martyr" in Arabic.

"This is the first time that we have organized a demonstration on behalf of both Iraq and Palestine," said Mohammed Abdullah, one of the organizers. "We say to the United States that we are ready to carry out martyrdom operations."

The demonstrators distributed a leaflet saying "the martyrs of the future are ready" and demanding that the United States "cease its attacks against Arab and Islamic countries" or face the consequences.

Emergency laws, in force almost continuously since 1967 in Egypt, ban public protests. However, they are tolerated on university campuses and in mosque compounds.