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What Happened to the April 12, 2002, March on the Zionist Embassy in Amman?
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                                                              Amman, Jordan
                                                             April 12, 2002


The march failed today mainly because the regime put Amman under siege.  All
the main roads leading to the section of Amman that houses the embassy were
blocked.  Roads leading from the secondary cities to Amman also had
barricades on them.  There were troops everywhere.  Cabs
were searched.  Those carrying kuffiyahs or flags were arrested. People who
tried to traverse on foot were beaten and arrested.  There are dozens in
jails right now.

To add insult to injury, the General Secretaries of the legal parties
called for a meeting at nine this morning.  At eleven, they announced that
the march had been cancelled.  This dealt a severe blow to the movement.
They backed off at a crucial moment, thus missing the chance to have the
regime bear the full responsibility for preventing the march.  They claimed
on Al Jazeerah, and Al Manar TV, that they took this decision to save the
blood of demonstrators from being spilled on the street.  Having made it
through many small and side roads to the Union of Professional Associations,
I witnessed a severe confrontation between several local groups who had many
of their members arrested trying to make it to the march and some of the
general secretaries of the legal parties.  It was a nasty scene.  As if the
regime succeeded in taking the confrontation to our ranks.  In view of this,
I informed the office of the Unions of Professional Association that I shall
abstain from speaking in the rally there tonite in protest for cancelling
the march, which would turn anything said at the rally a mere attempt to
vent off steam.

Later
Ibrahim Alloush