Protests in Australia as Bush Defends Iraq War
By REUTERS
Published: October 23, 2003
Filed at 0:15 a.m. ET

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Heckled inside the Australian parliament and jeered by protesters outside, President Bush on Thursday defended the Iraq invasion and war on terror, saying Australia and the United States had to lead by example.

The American president is on a whirlwind visit to Australia to thank conservative Prime Minister John Howard for helping in the U.S.-led war on terror and in Iraq.

His 20-hour visit has triggered a massive security operation in the usually sleepy capital with armed air force jets escorting him into Canberra on Wednesday night with orders to shoot any unauthorized aircraft and patrolling over the city on Thursday.

Authorities took the unprecedented step of barring the public from the national parliament where Bush spoke on Thursday, backing a special security role for Australia in the Asia-Pacific region that has raised concerns among Asian neighbors.

``Security in the Asia-Pacific region will always depend on the willingness of nations to take responsibility for their neighborhood, as Australia is doing,'' Bush told parliament.

But his tagging of Australia as a regional ``sheriff'' and staunch defense of the Iraq war angered left-leaning Green politicians whose yells twice stopped the president's speech.

``We are not a sheriff,'' shouted Greens leader Bob Brown who ignored an order to leave the house.

The heckling did not rattle Bush who is on his first trip to Australia and will head home later on Thursday.

``I love free speech,'' he quipped, to cheers from the house.

While tempers flared inside the hill-top parliament, a crowd of up to 2,000 protesters outside chanted anti-U.S. slogans and waved banners reading: ``Yankee Go Home'' and ``U.S. Sucks.''

Through the crowd weaved an Osama bin Laden lookalike, carrying a placard reading ``Come and Get Me'' and two activists dressed as Saddam Hussein and Bush holding hands.

posted by Blicero : 10/23/2003 02:27:00 AM