NDP march

Tens of thousands gathered yesterday before Cairo's International Stadium to join a huge march organised by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) to protest an American- led war against Iraq, reports Gamal Essam El-Din . Conservative estimates placed the number of protestors at 200,000. Organisers of the rally said it was nearer half a million. The march, the first ever to be organised by the NDP, was led by the party's Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif, Assistant Secretary-General Kamal El-Shazli, and Gamal Mubarak, son of President Hosni Mubarak and chairman of NDP's Policy Secretariat. They were joined by the leaders of two opposition parties, Khaled Mohiedddin of the leftist Tagammu and Noman Gomaa of the liberal Wafd party. Unlike last Thursday's rally organised by syndicates and opposition parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood, marchers were instructed not to burn American or Israeli flags. "We are not here to defend a certain ruler but to stand behind a brothery Arab people, El-Sherif told the rally." The anti-war protesters, mobilised by the Interior Ministry and NDP offices, were drawn from all three Greater Cairo governorates, Cairo, Giza and Qalioubiya.

Thousands throng to Nasr City to take part in the march; leading NDP members (l-r) Mubarak, El-Shazli and El-Sherif; Coptic priests and Azharite sheikhs join hands in calling for peace photos: Saad Faggennour