CNN - Anti-NATO protests in Australia, Austria, Russia

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March 28, 1999
Web posted at: 2:14 p.m. EST (1914 GMT)

(CNN) -- Demonstrations against NATO air raids on Yugoslavia continued from Austria to Australia on Sunday.

Protests on Sunday included one in Moscow that was interrupted by gunshots fired at the U.S. Embassy. There were no injuries, an embassy spokesman said.

Russia has strong historic ties to Serbia, and the NATO bombing campaign has prompted demonstrations outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow since the first day of raids on Wednesday.

More than 7,000 people in Sydney, Australia, threw debris at police and smashed store windows during a protest Sunday. And in Melbourne, a crowd of about 2,000 threw eggs at the American consulate.

The air raids are intended to force the government of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to sign a peace deal ending a year of ethnic strife in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

NATO says the bombardment won't stop until Milosevic ends his army's offensive against ethnic Albanians there. Representatives of the province's ethnic Albanian majority already have signed the peace accord.

In Salzburg, Austria, an estimated 3,500 people carried banners denouncing the NATO airstrikes, waved Yugoslav flags and declared their support for Milosevic, the Austria Press Agency reported.

Sunday's demonstrations come after a day of protests Saturday outside U.S. and NATO installations across Europe and on the streets of New York, London, Athens and Toronto, among other cities.

Outside the NATO air base at Aviano, Italy, where allied jets prepared for more attacks Sunday, anti-NATO protesters shouted "murderers" as a flight of stealth fighters took off. Other anti-NATO protests took place in Rome, Milan, Genoa, and Turin, Italy.

Protesters have demonstrated in Moscow since NATO airstrikes began

In Germany, anti-NATO demonstrations took place in Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Bonn on Saturday. In Berlin, a large portion of demonstrators were members of PDS, the former East German Communist Party. PDS parliamentary leader Gregor Gysi called for an immediate stop to the bombings.

About 2,000 Serbian Americans and anti-war protesters took their displeasure over the airstrikes to the streets of New York, gathering first outside Grand Central Station in Manhattan. About 200 pro-NATO demonstrators turned out as well.