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Thousands Rally in Amsterdam
Against US Military Action in Afghanistan
Paris AFP (North European Service)
in English
1556
GMT 30 Sep 01
PSD To HTML conversion is important to webmasters because they cannot use the PSD file as it is for their web pages. if you need PSD To HTML conversion service save yourself some time, effort and money and send it in to the professionals. AMSTERDAM, Sept 30 (AFP) - Between
5,000 and 7,000 people gathered in Amsterdam's central Dam square on
Sunday [30 September] to protest against possible US military action in
Afghanistan following the September 11 terrorist attacks, police said.
The protest was organized by the so-called "Platform against the new
war" an initiative of several dozen Dutch pro-peace organisations,
political groups, religious groups and Turkish and Moroccan organisations.
Protesters handed out pamphlets and stickers to shoppers in the
Klaverstraat, Amsterdam's main shopping street, saying "No to
war" and "Islam is not the enemy".
In their pamphlets the platform stressed it was against terrorism and
condemned the attacks on New York and Washington. During the demonstration
there was a minute's silence in memory of the thousands of victims of the
attacks.
The rally, the organizers say, is to protest against a military escalation
of the conflict that could cause more innocent victims. They called for
"justice not revenge".
Some of the speakers also expressed concerns about the increasing number
of racist incidents in society, often directed at Muslims or people
mistaken for Muslims.
In the weeks after the attacks the normally tolerant Dutch society has
seen a rise in racist incidents and hate crimes directed against Muslims.
On Sunday unknown men tried to set fire to a Turkish owned gas station in
the northern Dutch town of Zwolle. The arsonists left a graffiti message
on the building in German demanding all muslims be expelled from the
Netherlands.
The platform says the rally in Amsterdam was the first in a series of
protests and peace rallies.
[Description of Source: Paris AFP in English -- North European Service of
independent French press agency Agence France-Presse]
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