Demonstrators Near Bush-Putin Meeting to Protest US, Russian Leaders
    The Associated Press

    Monday 02 July 2007

    Kennebunkport, Maine: Hundreds of demonstrators calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush marched to within a half mile (a kilometer) of the site of the summit between Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    Protesters chanting slogans including "impeach now, impeach now!" carried colorful signs and pulled a wagon with a 7-foot-tall (2-meter-tall) replica of the Statue of Liberty in a coffin, representing the perceived loss of liberties under the Bush administration.

    Four demonstrators wearing orange jumpsuits, like those worn by detainees at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, kneeled on the ground near a police roadblock. Two demonstrators who crossed the police line were arrested.

    The crowd estimated by police at 1,700 criticized both world leaders - Bush for the war in Iraq and Putin for his hard line in Chechnya.

    The event was peaceful but two demonstrators who insisted on crossing a police line on Ocean Avenue were arrested and charged with trespassing.

    Jamilla El-Shafei, one of the organizers, said Bush and Putin have inflamed tensions that are already running high in the Muslim world. In particular, she zeroed in on Bush and Vice President Cheney over their handling of the war in Iraq.

    "We want the troops home now. We want permanent bases out of Iraq. And we want to hold Bush and Cheney accountable for deceiving the people into an immoral and unjust war, for mutilation of the Constitution and the evisceration of habeas corpus," she said.

    The protest began in the morning at the Village Green, a park not far from the center of town with its many tourist shops and restaurants.

    The demonstration was organized by the Kennebunk Peace Department and the Maine Campaign to Impeach. But demonstrators represented a wide variety of causes that included ending the genocide in Darfur, fighting corporate greed and improving the environment.

    Some protesters were targeting Putin, who came into office as the Chechnya conflict was flaring. Critics have accused him of human rights violations in suppressing mostly Muslim, separatist rebels in the breakaway region.

    Victoria Poupko, who moved from Moscow to Boston 17 years ago, said Bush and Putin are "both criminals" for torture, war crimes and abuse of power, among other things. She carried a sign that said, "Stop imperialism. Bush out of Iraq. Putin out of Chechnya."

    "Withdraw from Chechnya, let them have their independence," she said.