Anti-war rallies mark Iraq anniversary

SEOUL, South Korea --Thousands of anti-war protesters around the world on Sunday demanded coalition troops leave Iraq, but demonstrations in many countries were far smaller than anticipated on the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.

Protesters in South Korea demanded their government bring home its 3,200 troops from northern Iraq, the largest contingent of foreign troops after the U.S. and Britain.

"No occupation in Iraq!" chanted the protesters at the Seoul Station Plaza, pumping their fists and holding signs reading, "No War, No Bush."

"The U.S. has massacred hundreds of thousands ... of people in Iraq," protest leader Oh Jong-ryol told the crowd. "There are growing voices around the world that the U.S. imperialists should be brought to the war tribunal."

South Korea, which contributed troops despite strong popular opposition, plans to bring about 1,000 soldiers home starting in April.

Andrew Whittet, an English teacher from the state of New York, said he rallied in South Korea to "show other people in the world that not all Americans are for the war in Iraq and not all Americans agree with George Bush."

Police said about 1,000 people turned out, while organizers put the number at 2,000.

In Tokyo, anti-war rallies stretched into a second day Sunday, with about 800 protesters chanting "No War, Stop the War!" and banging drums as they marched peacefully toward the U.S. Embassy. A day earlier, about 2,000 rallied in Tokyo.

"The Iraq war was President Bush's big mistake and the whole world is against him," said organizer Ayako Nishimura. "Iraq must decide its own affairs."

Elsewhere, anti-war protesters demonstrated outside the U.S. Embassy in Malaysia, chanting, "Stop the War," "No Blood for Oil" and "America Get Out of Iraq."

Protests in other countries also fell short of organizers' hopes.

In London, police said 15,000 people joined a march Saturday from Parliament and Big Ben to a rally in Trafalgar Square. The anniversary last year attracted 45,000 protesters in the city.

"Every day you hear of new deaths," said Rose Gentle, whose soldier son Gordon, 19, was killed by a roadside bomb last year in Basra, southern Iraq. "Tony Blair has actually made Iraq a worse place for the Iraqi people."

Britain, the United States' strongest supporter in the Iraq war, has about 8,000 troops in Iraq but plans to pull out 800 of them by May.

Some 500 people protested in Sydney on Saturday -- a smattering compared to the mass demonstrations that swept across the Australia in the buildup to the invasion. Many Australians were instead tuned in to Commonwealth Games in the southern city of Melbourne, the scene of some of the biggest anti-war protests three years ago.

Saturday's anti-war protests in Europe were dwarfed by the half-million people who demonstrated in France against proposed labor law reforms, and about 80,000 nationalists in Belgrade mourning former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic.

In Stockholm, Sweden, about 1,000 demonstrators marched to the U.S. Embassy, one dressed as the hooded figure shown in an iconic photograph from the Abu Ghraib prison. Some 2,000 people protested in Copenhagen, Denmark.