One Million Indonesians to stage anti-war rally

Indonesia to stage anti-war rally
Indonesia's largest Islamic organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), is to hold a mass protest against war with Iraq.
About one million people are expected to gather at a huge prayer rally in the country's second city, Surabaya, about 650 kilometres (400 miles) east of the capital Jakarta.

Another, smaller, protest will also be held in Jakarta with thousands expected to attend prayers at the grand mosque close to the heavily guarded US embassy.

Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, has repeatedly stated its opposition to any unilateral attack on Iraq, although it is close to the US on other issues.

Moderate Muslim groups, such as the 40-million-strong NU, have joined the opposition to a US-led attack on Iraq.

"The threat of war... may come in days. But we have associated ourselves with the big wave against that war. And tomorrow we will make our prayer," Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told clerics of the NU on Saturday.

One of Indonesia's most popular preachers, Abdullah Gymnastiar, is due to attend the rally.

"I will read out the letter to US President George W Bush asking him to avert war, while the protesters will be laying on the ground as if they were killed by a bomb," Aa Gym, as he is popularly known, told the Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Organisers have asked men attending the rally to wear white or traditional dress and have discouraged banners and posters.

Indonesians have largely supported a government crackdown on Islamic militants after a bombing last October in the resort island of Bali killed around 200 people, mostly Westerners, correspondents say.


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