Golkar joins nationwide protests against Iraq war

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.