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Thousands burn mock Statue of Liberty in anti-war protest

Jakarta Post - April 5, 2003

Solo -- A crowd of 10,000 people burned a mock Statue of Liberty and chanted "Bush is a terrorist" during a boisterous anti-war rally on Friday in the world's largest Muslim nation.

Crowds marched through the streets of the Central Javanese town of Solo, holding hundreds of posters calling for a peaceful end to the Iraq war and labeling US President George W. Bush a terrorist and baby killer.

Others strode through the streets holding a plastic foam replica of the Statue of Liberty but with a machine gun in her hands. As the protest ended in front of a university campus, the crowd burned the two-meter-high statue and joined in a chorus of "Bush is a terrorist".

Protesters included students from the Islamic boarding school of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, a radical Muslim cleric being held in jail on treason charges. He is the alleged leader of the terror group Jama'ah Islamiyah, which is blamed for the Oct. 12 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.

Meanwhile in Jakarta, more than a dozen students as young as five joined in a festive anti-war protest outside the US Embassy. Wearing puppet masks and straw hats, the youngsters quietly joined their teachers in chants of "We Want Peace."

The Indonesian government has been a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq and President Megawati Sukarnoputri has denounced it as "aggression that violates international law."

Noisy but peaceful protests have been widespread across the country since the war began. Radical Islamic groups have used the war to launch a boycott of American products, threaten foreigners and recruit Indonesians to fight in Iraq -- campaigns which have made little headway in this vast archipelago made up of mostly moderate Muslims.