Australia staged a welcome-home parade yesterday for its troops who went to war in Iraq, but its coalition partners Britain and the United States have baulked at a march fearing it would be insensitive in the Arab world.
Thousands of office workers, burly hard-hat construction teams and mothers with babies in prams lined Sydney's main thoroughfare, George Street, clapping and cheering as 1,400 sailors, soldiers and airmen and women marched passed.
PHOTO: AP
"Aussie, Aussie Aussie, Oi, Oi Oi" went the chant as one band played Australia's unofficial national anthem Waltzing Matilda and fighter jets roared overhead in a low fly pass.
Australia was a minor partner in the coalition which toppled Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, sending 2,000 military personnel, including special forces, as well as fighter jets, aircraft transports and naval ships.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard, one of the most vocal supporters of Washington's war in Iraq, cancelled parliament's question time for him and ministers to attend the Sydney march.
"You went abroad in a just cause to defend the values of this country. You went abroad with the united prayers and hopes of all of the Australian people," Howard told the troops.
But the Labour opposition criticized Howard for cancelling parliament's question time, as it cranked up pressure for the government to follow London and Washington in establishing an inquiry into intelligence which led to the Iraq war.
"He is becoming a little Caesar, above the people, above the parliament," Labour's Mark Latham said.
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