Hollywood activists join anti-Iraq war march in Washington

Washington, Jan 28 (UNI) Hollywood activists Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon and actor Sean Penn joined tens of thousands of anti-Iraq war protestors here to demand an immediate end to a war which has claimed the lives of more than 3000 US soldiers.

Rally organisers urged demonstrators yesterday to stay put in the capital till tomorrow to put pressure on the Democratic-controlled Congress to pass a legislation which will bring US troops home from Iraq.

Actor Sean Penn said lawmakers would pay a price in the 2008 elections if they failed to take firm action. ''If they don't stand up and make a resolution as binding as the death toll, we're not going to be behind those politicians,'' he said.

The Democratic Party had won a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate in the November elections, riding on the anti-war wave.

Democratic Party lawmakers proposed to begin making it clear to President Bush that his decision to escalate war by injecting more troops in Iraq was not in the US national interest.

Actress and activist Jane Fonda, an anti-war activist since the Vietnam War said, ''I haven't spoken at an anti-war rally in 34 years because I've been afraid that the lies about me would be used to hurt this anti-war movement. But silence is no longer an option.'' Fonda, who made her first appearance at the anti-war rally in decades, thanked participants and said ''their commitment to ending the war allows people in other parts of the world to remain hopeful that America can once again become a country they can love and respect.'' Actors Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins and black civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson also spoke for the anti-war front.

Demonstrators shouted slogans and after the rally, marched near the Capitol building. They carried placards with slogans calling for the end of war and demanded the impeachment of President Bush.

The organisation which staged the event, ''United for Peace and Justice,'' said the immediate provocation for yesterday's rally was President Bush's call earlier this month to dispatch an additional 21,500 US troops to Iraq.

The organisers said their website received more than five million support messages this month, including 650,000 on Wednesday, when they held a press conference announcing the march.

UNI