Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/BERLIN: Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in a demonstration in Berlin to protest against supplying more arms to Ukraine, urging the German government to de-escalate the issues by paving the way for talks with President Vladimir Putin instead.
According to Guardian, German Police estimated there were 13,000 citizens at the uprising for peace at the Brandenburg Gate, organized by Sahra Wagenknecht, a renegade member of the Left party, and a veteran feminist campaigner Alice Schwarzer.
The organizers claimed as many as 50,000 took part in the protests. Similar demonstrations took place in other cities as well.
Berlin protest
In a speech during the Berlin protest, Wagenknecht spoke of “the start of a people’s initiative” and a “starting signal for a new, powerful peace movement in Germany”. She said that the demonstrators had been united by the fact they didn’t feel represented by the government of Olaf Scholz and his foreign minister Annalena Baerbock over their decision to provide Ukraine with advanced weapons.
Protesters were carrying banners reading: ‘Helmet today, tank tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, your son,” in reference to the manner in which the alliance government has raised its army support for Kyiv, initially donating 5,000 helmets and recently agreeing to send German Leopard tanks.
Other banners read that “Diplomaten statt Grenaten (Diplomats instead of grenades)”, “Stop Killing,” and “Not my Government Not My War,”.
“We like the slaves to war and warmongers,” said Norbert, an ex-soldier, declining to give his surname, who held the banner reading “The real enemy sits in the New York and the City of London,” a reference he said to the economic powers who he claimed behind the war and had no interest in it finishing. Germany, he said that had no right to participate in another war after world war-II.
One person held a banner on which he said citizens had been numbed into accepting the war by the sedative effect of the coronavirus vaccine. Around the demonstration, loudspeakers blasted the peace songs such as John Lennon’s Imagine and Nena’s 99 Red Balloons.
A woman called Edith, carrying a big portrait of the Indian revolutionary Mahatma Gandhi, said that “We should follow his example of non-violent resistance to bring the end to this madness.”
Other nearby demonstrations showed sympathy for Ukraine’s people, with banners reading: “Help Ukraine Defend Itself” and Stop Putin’s War”.
