Golkar joins nationwide protests against Iraq war

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Golkar Party made a belated debut in the antiwar protest stakes on Sunday, more than two weeks after many other groups took to streets across the country to condemn the United States- led attack on Iraq.

Party chairman Akbar Tandjung headed a 700-strong rally in the capital to urge the United Nations to take a leading role in opposing the war in Iraq and forcing the U.S. and its allies to withdraw their troops from Iraqi territory.

Unlike other protesters who opted to rally in front of the U.S. and British embassies, Golkar supporters gathered at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle and then marched the 300 meters to the UN representatives office on Jl. M.H. Thamrin.

"We don't think the U.S. will listen to our demands for the withdrawal of their troops and an end to the war.

"We are here to push the UN to take immediate action to stop the war. This is the right time for the UN to prove its credibility," Akbar, who is also the House of Representatives speaker, told party supporters.

Golkar is the first non-Muslim-based party to have joined in the nationwide protests against the war. On Friday, the president of the Muslim-based Justice Party, Hidayat Nurwahid, criticized nationalist parties for having said nothing regarding the war.

Government officials and religious leaders are of the opinion that the war is a humanitarian issue, not a religious one.

Akbar handed over to UN representative Bill Simpson a letter from Golkar to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stating the party's opposition to the war in Iraq.

Golkar also demanded that the government try to galvanize world pressure through international organizations, such as ASEAN, the Non-Aligned Movement, European Union and Organization of the Islamic Conference, to stop the war and strengthen the role of the UN.

Later in the day, hundreds of kindergarten teachers from all over Indonesia gathered at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to express their sympathy for the Iraqi children who had fallen victim to the war.

The teachers, who were in Jakarta to attend a national congress, distributed flowers to passers-by and motorists, Antara reported.

Meanwhile, in front of the U.S. Embassy on Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan in Central Jakarta, dozens of Muslim activists said prayers for the safety of the Iraqi people.

A similar mass prayer meeting was also held by thousands of followers of the country's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), in West Kalimantan, who packed the Al Falah Mosque in the provincial capital of Pontianak.

In Banjarmasin, the capital of South Kalimantan, Governor Sjachriel Darham joined in an antiwar rally sponsored by Islamic- based organization Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia. The protesters demanded that the government sever diplomatic ties with the U.S.

In Bandung, Iraqi Ambassador to Indonesia Nadji Mahdi Salih Al-Hadhiti attended a rally of solidarity with the Iraqi people at the Islamic Propagation Center in the West Java capital. Some 3,000 people attended the gathering.

In his speech, Al-Hadhiti asserted that his country badly needed people who were ready to die to defend Iraqi territory from the coalition forces, and not just humanitarian assistance.

He said that Iraq under Saddam Hussein was not that poor and would manage to provide food and other basic necessities for its people for the next seven months.

Thousands of other people in Bandung marched along the city's main streets and unfurled a banner bearing the signatures of more than a thousand people opposed to the war in Iraq.

Instead of staging a rally, people in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar donated blood for the Iraqi people who were wounded during the war, which has entered its 17th day.

According to the program's coordinator, Dewi Yasin Limpo of the Makassar Phinisi Club, the blood would be transported to Iraq by the Indonesian Red Cross.