NORTHERN IRELAND: An anti-war rally in Belfast has heard strong rejections of unionist demands that such protests be cancelled on "patriotic grounds". Around 4,000 people marched to City Hall on Saturday.
An air-raid siren rang out as a reminder of the constant bombing raids on Baghdad. The crowd waved Palestinian flags and placards denouncing President Bush and Mr Blair as "international terrorists". Mr Patrick Corrigan of Amnesty International said the citizens of Belfast, like others across the world, must become the voice of the Iraqi people who had no voice. No one believed President Bush and Mr Blair when they said it was a moral war, that they were interested in the welfare of ordinary Iraqis, and that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.
Mr Bob Gourley, of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, was booed by the crowd when he said: "You can oppose the war and support the troops." Rallies were also held in Derry and Cookstown, Co Tyrone.