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Arrests likely in anti-war protest at Federal Courthouse Monday

Anti-war activists vow to 'step-up' peace actions, may risk arrest at 'Die-In' Monday at Federal Courthouse

Anti-war activists disclosed plans to hold a massive "Die-In" here Monday - and risk arrest if necessary, as did the tens of thousands who participated in a D.C. Die-In Saturday - to encourage Rep. Doris Matsui and other lawmakers to vote against further funding of the war in Iraq.

The protest is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Monday at the Federal Courthouse (5th & I).

At a similar demonstration in March - on the 52nd day of a "peace-in" at Matsui's office - seven people were arrested inside Matsui's offices, including five veterans, as they read the names of U.S. and Iraqi civilian dead. It was the longest such sit-in of the Iraq War.

This month Congress is expected to vote on another war-funding measure - $148 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, including $116 billion for Iraq.

Monday's action - with U.S. and Iraqi "dead" stretched out along the Courthouse steps - is timed to coincide with similar Die-In protests across California and the nation this next week, and a Monday People's March in Congress.

Activists say they will carry coffins, giant peace gongs and other devices to announce the Die-In, where dozens of people will collapse in front of the Federal Courthouse to honor the more than 600,000 Iraqi women, men and children and 3,700 US troops who have died and the tens of thousands who are disabled and wounded from the war.