By Anthony O. Miller
SHOUTING “Down with Clinton,” 15 people, claiming to be from seven Muslim countries and the Palestinian Territory, gathered yesterday outside the US Embassy in Nicosia to protest against US and British air strikes against Iraq last week.
Amid heavy Cyprus police security, the protesters carried placards that read: “Clinton murderer of children” and “USA – Britain – Murderers.” No arrests or violence were reported.
Before massing outside the US Embassy, the protesters had presented a letter to the nearby Russian Embassy, thanking Russia for its strong opposition to the US-British attacks on Iraq.
Russia has recalled from Washington its US ambassador in protest over the US-British use of military force against Iraq, the first such recall from Washington by Russia since the end of the Cold War.
Some in the crowd said the were showing their support for Iraq and their opposition to US President Bill Clinton, who they said “transferred his personal problems in the war with Iraq.”
It has been suggested that Clinton launched the four-day series of air strikes on Iraq last Wednesday to deflect the US Congress’s attention from its vote, scheduled for the next day, on whether he should be impeached for allegedly lying under oath regarding his affair with ex-White House aide Monica Lewinsky.
The US House of Representatives on Saturday voted to impeach him anyway. He faces trial in the US Senate in January and removal from office if found guilty.
“It’s time to lift sanctions against Iraq,” some said, while others added that: “Bill Clinton should stop harassing Baghdad.”
Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair jointly ended the air strikes on Sunday, after declaring they had achieved their objective: to “degrade” Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s ability to produce chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
The United Nations ordered Saddam to destroy all such weapons, following his defeat in the 1991 Gulf War, which drove his occupation forces from Kuwait.
The air strikes were launched after UN weapons inspectors told the UN Security Council Saddam had, yet again, broken his promises to give them unrestricted access to any site in Iraq they chose to inspect to verify Saddam’s claims to having destroyed all his weapons of mass destruction.
The embassy protestors flew the flags of Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian Territory. Some said they were from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and the Palestinian Territory.
