Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=3/31/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-301538

TITLE=ASIA / IRAQ PROTESTS (L ONLY)

BYLINE=LARRY JAMES

DATELINE=BANGKOK

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Hundreds of thousands of people across Asia spent the past few days demonstrating against the U-S led war in Iraq. V-O-A's Larry James reports from our Southeast Asia bureau in Bangkok on the anti-war protests in Asia.

TEXT: India, Pakistan and Indonesia have seen some of their largest anti-war protests since the U-S led invasion began. A crowd estimated to number 300-thousand clogged the streets of Calcutta, India, on Sunday. Peshawar, Pakistan, and Jakarta, Indonesia, both saw demonstrations draw more than 100-thousand protesters Sunday. Fifty thousand people demonstrated in Cox's Bazaar in Bangladesh.

A small crowd of some 200 foreigners marched past the U-S embassy in Beijing demonstrating their opposition to the war, as Chinese authorities allowed an anti-war protest for the first time. Chinese police intervened to suppress a demonstration by a separate group of several dozen student protesters. In South Korea, an estimated 10-thousand union activists rallied in Seoul.

On Monday, Malaysia's foreign minister accused the U-S led coalition in Iraq of "terrorism." He warned of the possibility of suicide attacks, not only in Iraq where a suicide bomber killed himself and four American soldiers last week, but in other countries as well.

Syed Hamid Albar was quoted by the state-owned Bernama news agency as saying people are "fed up with the terrorism and injustice of the allied forces."

Malaysia holds the chairmanship of the 116-member Non-Aligned Movement and assumes the chairmanship of the Organization of Islamic Conference in October. The Malaysian government has condemned the United States and its coalition allies for the war on Iraq, arguing that the fighting will lead to more terrorism and damage the global economy. (Signed)

NEB/HK/LDJ/KPD