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| Students and citizens march against NATO |
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Originally published on November 17th, 2009 STUDENTS AND citizens from across Scotland and the UK converged on Edinburgh this weekend to protest against the meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC).
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the legislative and logistical arm of the international military alliance, was meeting to discuss the war in Afghanistan and security in neighbouring Pakistan. The assembly of 300 delegates from NATO’s 28 member states includes speeches by General Sir Peter Wall, the commander-in-chief of UK land forces and Admiral James Stavridis, the supreme allied commander of NATO in Europe. Saturday’s march and rally, organized by the Edinburgh branch of the Stop the War Coalition was attended by over 300 protesters, including groups from Glasgow and Aberdeen. Pete Cannell, the co-secretary of Stop the War Edinburgh said that his group wanted to remind NATO and ordinary citizens that "the situation in Afghanistan is worse now than in 2001, all the supposed aims of the war, liberation, democracy, women’s rights, haven’t been achieved. The solution needs to be political not military." Chief Inspector Donnie McKinnon, of the Lothian and Borders Police, said he was expecting a peaceful day of protest. "It is in the hands of the organisers, and while we have the resources to handle it if it gets out of control, it would be a shame for it to be unpeaceful." One of the protest attendees, University of Edinburgh PhD Politics student Jamie Allinson said that he was there to encourage NATO to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan. "Afghanistan needs development aid in large amounts, maybe distributed through some sort of regional framework," he said. "Afghanistan has had 30 years of imperialist occupation and it’s been broken as a state- troops make it worse, not better." The march kicked off below South Bridge and meandered up through the Grassmarket toward the EICC. At the intersection of Lawnmarket and the George IV Bridge, protesters were serenaded by bagpipes and gawked at by tourists, some of whom nodded or clapped when protesters began chanting ‘Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation!’ Protesters were joined on their march by two senators from the Netherlands and one MP from Norway, who were later allowed into the conference centre to argue for the removal of troops from Afghanistan. Most protesters were prevented by police barricades from coming within 200 feet of the conference centre, but engaged in a chorus of "What do we want? Troops out! When do we want it? Now!" A small rally was then held in Princes Street Gardens, and featured live music and speeches from some members of the Stop the War Coalition. Although Saturday saw a day successful day of protesting, Friday’s events did not go as planned. A group calling itself the Edinburgh Welcoming Committee planned a rally and had set-up a ‘convergence space’ to serve as a meeting place. Protests were set to begin at 10.30am, but were delayed because of the enactment of a Section 60 order, signed by Lothian and Borders police that morning. Section 60 gives police the power to stop and search citizens when they fear public safety is in danger. There were several brief altercations between protesters and police, and a number of protesters were served with injunctions because they would not remove their face masks which police claimed obstructed their ability to ‘gather evidence’. The planned protest was delayed until 1.30pm and was attended by only a few dozen protesters, who taunted NATO delegates spotted leaving the building with chants of ‘shame on you, shame on you!’ The NATO meeting continues until Tuesday.
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Good for you. Keep up the good work.