MANAMA, 21 March 2004 — More than 100 anti-war demonstrators picketed the United Nations office here yesterday, demanding an immediate pullout of US-led coalition forces from Iraq. Waving Iraqi and Palestinian flags amid blaring music, the protesters called on the UN to exert efforts to stop what they called an “illegal occupation” of Iraq.
The rally was organized by the “Bahrain Society Against Normalization with the Zionist Enemy” and the “National Civil Committee for the Support of the Iraqi People”.
“We strongly condemn the current occupation in Iraq. One year after the start of the war all of us who opposed have been proven right — namely that the US action was wrong,” said Dr. Hassan Al-Aali, chairman of the National Committee. “Everybody now knows that the US claims of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were false,” he said.
