posted 05-20-2004 04:06 PM            

Anti-war activists protest in London outside Bush fund-raiser

By Jane Wardell ASSOCIATED PRESS

3:10 p.m. May 18, 2004

LONDON – Anti-war protesters wore black hoods and chanted "Bush go home" outside a hotel where former President George Bush was attending a fund-raising dinner Tuesday for his son's re-election campaign.

About 200 demonstrators from the Stop the War Coalition action group took part in the protest at the Landmark Hotel in central London, which was heavily guarded by police. Protesters chanted "Resist, resist, Daddy Bush is a terrorist" and held signs with slogans such as "End the torture" and "Iraq for Iraqis," as rush-hour commuters converged on nearby Marylebone subway station.

Leaders urged activists to shout loudly to be heard by Bush, who was joining other guests at the Republicans Abroad dinner. The function was raising funds for the re-election campaign of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Luke Robinson, 29, a South Carolina-born Web developer who heads the Expats Against Bush protest group, said he was campaigning to prevent Bush's re-election.

"We believe that President Bush is a shame-worthy president because he has really led us down the garden path, and it turns out to be a pretty wicked garden," said Robinson, who was carrying a sign that read "Proud of the Country, Shamed by the President."

Police kept the activists in a penned off area and quickly moved tourists and other watchers along. However, police did briefly allow six protesters to move closer to the hotel to pose in black hoods and handcuffs in a scene reminiscent of photographs of the alleged torture of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers.

Those pictures have increased public criticism of the coalition's campaign in Iraq and intensified calls for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's top international ally in the conflict, to distance himself from Washington.

Lindsey German, a spokeswoman for the Stop the War Coalition, said the elder Bush was involved in the first Gulf War and "clearly supports his son's policies in the present war."

"This war has been nothing short of a disaster. We will be protesting until the troops are brought home and we end the occupation," German said.

She said mistreatment of Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was "a breach of the Geneva Convention and a major blot on a so-called democracy."

Ghada Razuki, another spokeswoman for the group, said it had received a message of support from Michael Berg, the father of Nicholas Berg, the American recently beheaded in Iraq.

Reading an excerpt to the crowd, she quoted it as saying: "George Bush can see neither the heart of Nicholas nor the American people, yet alone the people who his policies are killing daily."

George Galloway and Jeremy Corben – prominent anti-war lawmakers and members of Blair's Labour Party – also addressed the crowd.