National
Thousands support anti-NATO demonstration in Seville
By m.p.
Feb 4, 2007 - 10:00 PM

Thousands of people have supported a demonstration in Seville against an informal NATO meeting which takes place in the city later this week.

They marched through the streets carrying banners opposing NATO bases and demanding that Spanish troops on peacekeeping duties abroad return home. Police put numbers at between 4-5,000 people, while the organisers estimate that some 40,000 attended.

The protest was called by the Seville Social Forum, and was supported by many politicians from the Izquierda Unida party.

Gaspar Llamazares, the party’s general coordinator, was at the demonstration. He said its aim was to ‘reject NATO and their policy of war, which is the only policy they have.’

He said the terms of the referendum which agreed Spain’s entry into NATO are being contravened with ‘more installations for war’ in Spain, adding that the country ‘left Iraq through the front door and then entered Afghanistan through the window.’

Spain has 600 troops assigned to Afghanistan.

Jesús Lara, spokesman for the Seville Social Forum, said another demonstration is planned for this Thursday, the day the first NATO meeting takes place in the city.