Anti-war protesters await Bush in Rome

ROME – Tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators are promising to give US President George W. Bush a hot reception during his visit to Rome this week, the main focus of which will be his meeting with Pope John Paul II, one of the Iraq conflict’s most trenchant critics.

It will be Bush’s first foreign visit since the emergence of stories of widespread abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. The revelations have given new impetus to anti-war protesters in Europe, prompting Italy to mobilise 10 000 troops and riot police to ensure law and order on the streets for the US president’s visit on Friday and Saturday.More than 54 per cent of Italians believe the visit is ill-timed, according to a recent opinion poll in the Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana.But it also comes at an inopportune time for Bush’s friend, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who will be none too pleased by the sight of tens of thousands of demonstrators on the streets of the capital just a week short of a crucial electoral test for his government.Italians go to the polls in European and local elections on June 12 and 13 in what many see as an important bellwether for Berlusconi, half-way through his mandate.The prospect of noisy demonstrators on the streets of Rome protesting his government’s close relationship with Washington is a godsend to the embattled left-wing opposition, which have bitterly criticised Berlusconi’s Iraq policy.Left-wing leaders believe Berlusconi’s unpopular decision to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with Bush and send 3 000 troops to Iraq in a peacekeeping role in the immediate post-war period is coming home to roost.But more important than his meeting with his ally, Bush’s visit will provide him with a photo opportunity with John Paul II, all-important in his re-election campaign and the race for the Catholic and Hispanic vote at home.- Nampa-AFPThe revelations have given new impetus to anti-war protesters in Europe, prompting Italy to mobilise 10 000 troops and riot police to ensure law and order on the streets for the US president’s visit on Friday and Saturday.More than 54 per cent of Italians believe the visit is ill-timed, according to a recent opinion poll in the Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana.But it also comes at an inopportune time for Bush’s friend, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who will be none too pleased by the sight of tens of thousands of demonstrators on the streets of the capital just a week short of a crucial electoral test for his government.Italians go to the polls in European and local elections on June 12 and 13 in what many see as an important bellwether for Berlusconi, half-way through his mandate.The prospect of noisy demonstrators on the streets of Rome protesting his government’s close relationship with Washington is a godsend to the embattled left-wing opposition, which have bitterly criticised Berlusconi’s Iraq policy.Left-wing leaders believe Berlusconi’s unpopular decision to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with Bush and send 3 000 troops to Iraq in a peacekeeping role in the immediate post-war period is coming home to roost.But more important than his meeting with his ally, Bush’s visit will provide him with a photo opportunity with John Paul II, all-important in his re-election campaign and the race for the Catholic and Hispanic vote at home.- Nampa-AFP