Students Dead on Cornmarket
Oxford students braved the pouring rain last Saturday to stage a dramatic protest on Cornmarket Street against war in Iraq.
Anti-war protesters performed a 'die-in' whereby they lay down in the street and pretended to be dead.
Painted with fake blood and wearing bandages and slings, the protesters were hoping to bring the realities of war to the people of Oxford. Plaster limbs and cut-out pools of blood were scattered amongst the 'dead'.
Banners reading "Anything War can do Peace can do Better" and "No Blood for Oil" surrounded the protest in which many of the protesters spent over an hour lying on wet ground.
Laura Santana from St Hilda's told the OxStu, "this is nothing compared to being killed or blown to pieces". She explained, "it is really important to stress the effects of war. I saw one girl covering her face because she was really shocked by these mock deaths."
Tom Owen-Smith from Wadham added: "This brings the fact home that people are going to die."
At the height of the protest around 20 people were lying on the ground with several more holding banners and distributing leaflets. Some lay on bin-liners and banners but many just on the ground.
The protest was organised by Oxford Students Stop the War group and was mostly attended by students although some Oxford residents and passers-by joined in.
This form of protest was chosen because lying in the street is not an arrestable offence and the group wanted a peaceful protest.
The group said "this die-in is a peaceful action to raise awareness about the effects of war - that it kills innocent men, women and children"
Photos: Rachael Shaw
Here's an email OxStu received from an American reader in response to Oxford's protests:
"Do you even know what you are protesting? I'm just wondering if you could clearly explain your point of view? All I hear it that you think the war is being rushed into. To [sic] late, it was declared by the terrorists when our nation was attacked on Sept. 11 and 2,000 lost their lives to a senseless act. Has your country been attacked by these terrorists, your security been stolen from you? Have you lost any countrymen to terrorists? Can you travel safely without worry of your children being on the plane with a madman who thinks he's about to be with a hundred virgins in heaven? You align yourself with a ruthless dictator who has suppressed and tortured his own people and then you call yourself peaceloving at the same time. It is hypocritical. You don't have to like us, we are really fine with that even though we hold nothing against you, but think twice before you criticize us for protecting ourselves and defending our safety from this terrorist."
Response from Kulveer Taggar, St John's College:
"You seem to confuse Al Qaeda with Saddam Hussein.
The CIA, incidentally the world's best funded intelligence agency, has declared that there is NO evidence of a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq. The British intelligence agency MI6 has come to the same conclusion. In fact, Bin Laden offered to defend Kuwait from Iraq's invasion in 1991, because he believes Saddam is an "apostate". Saddam is a secular leader, which makes him Bin Laden's enemy, and so the US are playing into his hands by removing Saddam. If anything, this war on Iraq will increase terrorism: they number of potential volunteers for organisations such as Al Qaeda increases by the thousands with each Iraqi civilian death. The US is not safer on any accounts.
Please remember that the US armed Saddam to the teeth in his war against Iran, and encouraged him to use biological and chemical weapons which they supplied to him in the 80s. That Saddam is a ruthless dictator is not in doubt, but what the protesters are arguing is that war is not the best way forward."
27th Feb 2003