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| FOURTH VOICES NEWSLETTER, MARCH 1999
Contents
1) AN UNDECLARED WAR AGAINST THE IRAQI PEOPLE
As we go to press, Britain and the US are continuing to conduct what one US official has described as "a mini undeclared war" (Washington Post, 7 March) which has claimed civilian lives (most notably in the bombing of Basra in January), and temporarily cut an oil pipeline on which the oil-for-food programme depends. There are other wars going on: there is a war by sanctions; a war of starvation and disease. Denis Halliday, former UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, writes, ‘We simply cannot let two [UN] member states continue to pervert the United Nations into a weapon of mass destruction.’ (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 12 Feb. 1999) Sanctions kill over 4000 children every month, according to Halliday - over 100 children die every day. There is also a third war being fought - a propaganda war, a war of lies waged against British and US public opinion, and against world opinion, as Blair and Clinton try to justify their criminal activities. All these three wars are addressed on different pages in this issue of voices, the newsletter of voices in the wilderness uk. voices uk campaigns against the sanctions by breaking them -by taking medicines to children’s hospitals in Iraq without an export licence. We have organised two sanctions-breaking delegations so far, and will shortly be sending a (much-delayed) third. We are also one of the main sources of documented information about the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. 2) SOLIDARITY WITH VOICES US
Last December, Voices in the Wilderness US received notification that the group and four named individuals (Randall Mullins, Bert Sacks, Joe Zito, and Dan Handelman) are to be fined a total of $163,000 for violating the sanctions on Iraq. This is an administrative penalty, which means that no trial is necessary, thus denying Voices the chance of raising the issue in the courts. This fine marks the first time the US government has taken legal action against Voices, despite their having organised 19 sanctions-breaking delegations to Iraq in the past three years. Voices responded by delivering a letter to the government, stating that they would not pay the fine (all their money, they pointed out, had been entrusted to them to be used to buy supplies to take to Iraq) and would carry on taking medicines in violation of the sanctions. At the time of writing, Voices US have had no response from the government. However, there was a massive response to a press conference organised by the group to highlight the issue, with hundreds of people ringing in to pledge their support. In solidarity with Voices US, we are inviting supporters to sign statements of ‘co-conspiracy’; that is, statements that they have in some way also conspired to violate the sanctions, for instance by donating money to voices in the wilderness uk to buy medicines. We will be delivering copies of the statements to the US government and to the Foreign Office in London. Please contact us if you would like a statement of co-conspiracy, or a petition of support. You might also like to write to Voices US to show your support as they face the uncertainty of what this demand for payment could bring: Voices in the Wilderness, 1460 W.Carmen, Chicago, IL 60640, USA. Andrea Needham ‘We are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral ... 4000 to 5000 children [in Iraq] are dying unnecessarily every month due to the impact of sanctions because of the breakdown of water and sanitation, inadequate diet, and the bad internal health situation.’ (Denis Halliday, former UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, resignation statements, The Independent, 15 & 1 October 1998) ‘This is genocide. Children are dying slowly and painfully. We call on the president of America, the vice president and the congressmen to come to Iraq and see the little children and Tony Blair, the U.K. government and Kofi Annan to come and to go to the cancer ward and give us an answer ... what was their crime?’ (Adolfo Perez-Esquivel, Argentine Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (1980), in Baghdad, 9 March, as part of a US Fellowship of Reconciliation delegation to Iraq) ‘I have seen children dying with their mothers next to them and not being able to do anything. They are not soldiers.’ (Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Irish Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Baghdad, 9 March 1999). ‘I’m somebody... who doesn’t support the continuation of sanctions... I think they’re a horrible tool... Sanctions only punish the people of Iraq, they don’t punish this [Iraqi] regime.’ (Scott Ritter, former UNSCOM inspector, Radio 4, 29 Sept. 1998) ‘Sanctions are inhuman and what we are doing cannot redress that inhumanity.' (Margaret Hassan, CARE International worker, Baghdad, quoted in The Independent, 15 October 1998) 4) POSTING MEDICINES
Our next major action will be in April, when we will be coordinating a nationwide attempt to break the sanctions by posting medicines to Iraq. We held a trial postal action at Charing Cross post office on 27 February, a National Day of Action against Sanctions. Our plans will be finalized on 20 March at the National Coordinating Meeting of the anti-sanctions movement, to which everyone is invited (see back page for details). Three UN ‘panels’ on Iraq will be reporting back on 15 April, and there may well be a burst of publicity about the sanctions at that time. The three panels are investigating disarmament, the humanitarian crisis, and Kuwaiti claims against Iraq; their recommendations will not be binding: ‘the committees were formed only as a procedural ruse to bypass the deadlock in the council over the starting-point for talks on Iraq.’ (Economist, 6 Feb.) 5) OUR NEXT DELEGATION
Making good on its commitment to continue sending delegations to Iraq in spite of the massive fine imposed on them, Voices US has delegations travelling to Iraq in April and in May. voices uk hopes to take part in the May delegation. Our plans for delegations from Britain at the end of last year had to be put off because of the US/UK bombing, but four people from Voices US were able to travel to Iraq in December and to witness the last night of attacks (see page 5 for more details). On our May delegation, we will again be violating the sanctions by taking medicines and perhaps medical equipment. We would very much appreciate any donations towards the costs of these supplies. In addition, we would like to take medical journals, which are also banned under sanctions. We know that Iraqi doctors would appreciate any back issues of the BMJ or the Lancet, if anyone has any of these they would like to donate. Andrea Needham 6) SPEAKER MEETINGS
Speaker meetings are a really important way of informing people about the effects of sanctions, and we would appreciate opportunities to speak to groups anywhere in the UK. voices has sent our three sanctions-breakers, Martin Thomas, Andrea Needham and Milan Rai to speak at meetings all over the country. As the result of one meeting in Durham, two groups were set up - one in the town, and the other in Durham University. A talk in Milton Keynes also led to the formation of a group concerned with the Iraq crisis. Audiences seem to be growing, and more and more groups seem to be mobilizing. There seems to be a large pool of dissident opinion out there, waiting to be mobilized. Our belief is that those of us who are concerned at the government’s policy towards Iraq need reliable information, to help us to see through, and to counter, government propaganda, and we need some sense of the human dimension of the humanitarian crisis. voices uk tries to meet both needs. The information we circulate is as robust and well-documented, and as up-to-the-minute, as we can make it. The slides and photos we’ve brought back from Iraq, and the stories of individual Iraqis who we met in Iraq, help to uncover the human face of this enormous crime. If anyone is interested in inviting a speaker from voices to their group, or is interested in organizing their own meeting, please do give us a ring. 7) THE PROPAGANDA WAR
Last November the Guardian reported that "Tony Blair’s government is waging a co-ordinated propaganda campaign" one of the "key themes" of which was "an explanation of why [Saddam Hussein’s] regime, not UN sanctions, is killing Iraqi children" (‘The Propaganda War’, 14 November). The campaign continues. Thus, in a letter to The Times Defence Secretary George Robertson wrote that "Saddam ... now hoards vast quantities of medical supplies rather than distributing them to his people" (Letters, 6th March). Derek Fatchett took a similar tack in a letter to The Independent on Sunday citing the fact that the UN Secretary-General’s February report on the implementation of ‘oil-for-food’ "points out that only 15 per cent of medical equipment has been distributed" as evidence of "Iraqi obstruction". 8) LACK OF TRANSPORT
The report does state that "as of 31 January 1999, approximately $275 million worth of medicines and medical supplies had accumulated in warehouses... more than half of all supplies" so far, and that "according to information provided by UN observers, only 15 per cent of all medical equipment has been distributed". However, it goes on to give reasons for these problems - none of which could fairly be described as "Iraqi obstruction". For example the report notes "the lack of modern managerial tools, the poor working conditions within the warehouses and the lack of transport for moving the supplies to health centers" and the increased stockpiling of medical supplies "following September 1998, when tensions mounted". The Sept. ’98 Secretary-General’s report also cited "poor communi-cations between health facilities and warehouses, and shortage of trans-port, labour, materials and funding to install equipment" as additional factors for the "low delivery rate [of medicines] to end-users". The February 1999 report notes that "it is important for the [Sanctions Committee] to acknowledge that a humanitarian programme of such magnitude requires a commensurate level of transport, communications and material-handling equipment and to be ready to act favourably on requests for essential logistic support". In his introduction to the report the Executive Director of ‘oil-for-food’ coments that "few of these essential prerequisites have been made available in an efficient and timely maner" (emphasis added). Thus, to a significant extent, the distribution problems appear to be a consequence of the sanctions regime. In the same letter Fatchett claims that the lack of shortages of medicines in northern Iraq is due solely to the fact that "the UN implements the programme in the north" while "the Iraqi government is responsible" elsewhere. However, the report states that "the per capita value of inputs in the north significantly exceeds that in the center/south" providing "one explanation for the increasing difference between them" in terms of malnutrition levels. Of course, neither Fatchett or Robertson mentioned what the report identified as "the most serious issue facing implementation of the programme" namely "the growing shortfall in revenues". Introducing the February report, Sevan notes that "For the current phase [phase V], ending on 25 May, gross oil revenues are anticipated to reach $2.9 bn, leaving only $1.8 bn for humanitarian supplies and oil spare parts and equipment for the Iraqi oil industry" after the UN has allocated over 30 % of revenues to the Compensation Fund etc ... Sevan contrasts this with the "$2.7 bn required" for the implementation of the, already greatly pared-down, phase V distribution plan. Ministers also omit Sevan’s statement that "There is no way, and can be no way, for Iraq to increase its capacity to export additional oil to finance both the humanitarian programme and to meet the demands for spare parts and equipment." Of course if sanctions were lifted "multinational companies would be free to move in and do a proper repair job on the pipes and pumps" (Economist, 6th February). However Sevan rubbishes as "an academic exercise", "any suggestion to [just] raise further the ceiling of revenues" in ‘oil-for-food ’ - a US proposal which the Economist article dismissed as "meaningless" (see ‘Lifting the Cap’ briefing). Last December the World Food Programme noted "the main reason" for the continuing nutritional problems in Iraq: "the massive deterioration in basic infrastructure". There simply is not the cash in ‘oil-for-food’ to deal with this problem, which require tens of billions of dollars. The British Government refuses to acknowledge this simple fact. - voices is compiling a more detailed briefing on the propaganda war. To order a copy, please use the tear-off slip on the back. Copies are free, but donations towards production costs are very welcome. 10) 'A MINI UNDELCARED WAR'
‘For a force supposedly protecting civilians, the American and British jets controlling the skies above Iraq go about their task in a peculiar manner. Their near-daily attacks on the "perceived danger" of Iraqi air defences have disrupted the distribution of food and medicine, cut off the flow of oil that pays for those supplies and, on occasion, killed the people they are supposed to be protecting.’ (The Economist, 6 Mar.) ‘With little publicity - and amid virtual indifference in western capitals - US and British aircraft have staged well over 70 air-strikes against Iraq over the past five weeks, inflicting more damage than the pre-Christmas Anglo-American bombardment’ in an ‘air offensive ... carefully calibrated to avoid criticism or public debate’. (Robert Fisk, Independent on Sunday, 21 Feb.) One US State Department official has described it as ‘a mini undeclared war’ (Washington Post, 7 Mar.). Fisk notes that Iraqi missile sites have been attacked without warning and radar stations targeted ‘solely because their presence - rather than any offensive activity - was said to menace American forces in the Gulf’: On 2 Feb. ‘US aircraft bombed a Russian-made CSSC-3 "Seer-sucker" anti-shipmissile battery on the Fao peninsula which, according to a spokesman "could have threatened shipping in the Gulf". Military sources say there was no evidence that missiles were about to be fired.’ (IOS, 21 Feb., emphasis added) 11) CHANGING THE RULES
The Washington Post reports that at a meeting of top national security advisers on 8 January, US Defense Secretary William Cohen and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Henry Shelton proposed changing secret guidelines that govern how military planners select targets and how pilots respond to Iraqi actions: ‘Since 1991 the rules had dictated a proportionate response to threats from weapons sites and to violations of the no-fly zones by Iraqi aircraft. [The Cohen/Shelton] proposal was to give US and British forces the authority to respond to attacks by striking back at any portion of the Iraqi air defense system, rather than the specific air defense site that invited retaliation.’ (WP, 7 Mar., emph. added) The Post notes that ‘Except in cases where they are in immediate danger ... pilots rarely respond directly to Iraqi aggression’. Two examples are quoted: On 1 March, US Air Force F-15Es ‘were illuminated by Iraqi radar. About an hour later, taking advantage of exceptionally clear weather, American aircraft responded by dropping 31 laser-guided bombs.’ (emph. added) 12) CUTTING OFF OIL-FOR-FOOD
‘A day earlier, a pair of F-15s ... had detected antiaircraft fire coming from about 10 miles west of Mosul. The firing was all they needed to go after another site - a relay site southwest of Mosul, about ten miles from the antiaircraft battery - that had been assigned even before they took off earlier that day.’ (emphases added) This relay station, and another site hit on 1 March, turned out to house ‘radio relay stations ... that transmit operational data for Iraq’s main oil pipeline.’ The loss of these stations ‘meant that no Iraqi oil could be pumped to Turkey ... half of Iraq’s oil exports under the UN oil-for-food programme go that way.’ The Iraqis managed to repair the stations by 3 March but, ‘had they failed to do so, they would have had to embark on an arduous application process for spare parts that takes months’. (Economist, 6 March) 1 March marks a turning point. As Andrew Marshall explained ‘for most of the past two months, the US and Britain have been dropping at most a dozen bombs and missiles on Iraq in attacks in the north and south. Yesterday they launched attacks on a much broader scale, as the rules of engagement were apparently shifted.’ (Independent, 2 Mar.) A senior US military official told the Washington Post that ‘It’s a strategy we fell into ... It’s not one we originally planned. But it’s working very, very well for us." (7 Mar.). 13) 17 PEOPLE KILLED
One incident which actually received some media coverage occurred on 25 Jan., when US missiles struck the poor al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood in Basra, and unidentified missiles hit the village of Abu-Khasib, 16 miles to the south. According to the UN, the missiles killed 17 people, including 10 children, injured about 100, and damaged or destroyed 45 houses. (AP, 5 Feb.) General Sir Michael Rose, former UN force commander in Bosnia, condemned the US/UK air offensive. Speaking before the British Royal United Services Institute he said, ‘The continual TV images of the West’s high-technology systems causing death and destruction to people in the Third World will not be tolerated forever by civilised people.’
14) EYEWITNESS IRAQ
Four members of Voices US - Kathy Kelly, Anne Montgomery, Alan Pogue and Brad Simpson - entered Iraq during the December bombardment. Here are excerpts from their report. Saturday, December 19th, 1998 As we cross the border into Iraq, soldiers note our USA passports, shake their heads, and grin. "Americans! I’m going to kill all of you," shouts an officer, as we drive off. His friendly laugh is our first encounter with a gallows humor that seems to help Iraqi people cope with inescapable danger Yarmouk Hospital Dr. Gasim Ghelar Risun’s left jaw is broken, he has lost hearing in one ear, and he has huge bruises on his forearm and forehead. His eye is also badly bruised and the left side of his face is paralysed. Gasim and his family were sleeping in the living room of his home when a missile crashed through the wall. The missile didn’t explode and he, his wife, and his three children were able to crawl out of the rubble. His wife and one of his daughters are also hospitalized. Susan, age nine, was hit in the head by a piece of flying cement and is under the care of a neurosurgeon. His other children (1½ years old and 20 days old) were not harmed. We visit his home in the Al Adil suburb of Baghdad. Immediately behind his attractive three storey home is a mosque. We see no signs of any military targets. The bomb entered into Gasim’s home through the first floor window. The beds are broken, children’s toys are strewn about, with a doll lying on a pile of rubble. The ceiling fan is broken and the clock, also broken has stopped at 4:40 a.m., the time when the bomb hit. Christmas Day - Al Deir Village, Just North Of Basra Sajad, a four-year-old child, is held by his brother on the rooftop of their home. Most of the windows were blown out when a bomb hit the nearby microwave station that served as a telecommunications center. The blasts were so frightening that all of the neighbors began together to wail and cry in sheer terror. Little Sajad still has trouble eating and tries to fall asleep sitting up. He seems to fear that if he lays down the bombing will resume. This Christmas present, ‘delivered’ at 4:00 a.m. while the village slept, caused 12 women to abort their babies. One person suffered a heart attack. People in the nearby homes screamed and cried in terror as their windows were shattered. Al-Mansour Children's Hospital Normally only children are treated here, but adults were admitted because of the emergency. Entisar Abdul Rahman 38 looked out during the first night of the bombing. The force of an explosion ruptured her intestine, and she has had sporadic consciousness since then. The hospital lacks colostomy bags and the one remaining dispos-able bag is being reused, at great risk of infection. "I am too anxious, can’t speak. We are sorry . You are not the ones who do this to us." Basra Paediatrics And Maternity Hospital Chief Resident Dr. Abdul Firas Abbas tells us, "This last attack generated the aggression in myself. Tony Blair is glad that Iraq has no power to hit back and says the embargo will continue. "They have no heart—for the oil, they kill the children, kill the future. What about the children? They are harmed psychologically, education-ally, nutritionally. We need everything, - knowledge, connection with the outside world. What is the quality of our life?" Alan shows him a copy of a recent article about a previous visit to Basra, printed in a peace movement newsletter. Firas points at the newsletter’s heading: "Austin Peace and Justice." "Where is the justice?" he asks. "You want the oil. Take the oil. But don’t kill our children." ‘The slum conditions I saw in southern Iraq are as bad as anywhere I’ve seen in the Third World.’ (Dave Toycen, president of World Vision Canada, 9 March 1999) ‘This month U.S. policy will kill 4,500 children under the age of 5 in Iraq, according to UN studies. This is not foreign policy - it is sanctioned mass-murder that is nearing holocaust proportions... For the past several years, individuals and groups have been delivering medicine and other supplies to Iraq in defiance of the U.S. blockade. Now, members of one of those groups, Voices in the Wilderness in Chicago, have been threatened with massive fines... Our government is harassing a peace group that takes medicine and toys to dying children; we owe these courageous activists our support.’ (Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, Edward Said, and Howard Zinn, letter, Independent, 21 Jan. 1999) ‘Worldwide, poverty is the main determinant of malnutrition and child mortality. Hence it is not surprising that artificially induced poverty by economic embargo produces the same results. Deprivation and excess deaths are real in Iraq, and I can personally attest to the devastating effects of the embargo on ordinary life from having been a member of three United Nations food and nutrition missions. Sanctions are not the humane alternative to war that they are purported to be, and if there were justice in this world these actions promoted by the United States and Britain in the name of the UN would be seen as the crime against humanity that they are.’ (Dr. Peter Pellet, Professor of Nutrition, University of Massachusetts, letter, Guardian Weekly, 10 January 1999) 16) WHY WE BREAK THE SANCTIONS
voices in the wilderness uk breaks the economic sanctions on Iraq by taking medicines to children’s hospitals, without export licences. We do so despite the risk of prosecution (the maximum penalty is five years imprisonment). We break the sanctions in order to offer a small measure of direct assistance to the people of Iraq, and to offer a direct challenge to the sanctions regime which has created a humanitarian disaster in a potentially-rich, and previously healthy country. The government says, quite rightly, that there are no sanctions on medicines going into Iraq. But what they don’t say is that you still have to seek permission to take medicines to Iraq under the sanctions. They also don’t mention the fact that the notion of ‘medicines’ does not include anaesthetics, needles, syringes, spare parts for X-ray machines, medical journals and so on. Many of these things are imported into Iraq under ‘oil-for-food’, but the quantities involved have so far been drastically inadequate. Reasons Of Conscience We do not break the sanctions simply because there are shortages of medicines (though there are), or because the licensing process is onerous and bureaucratic (though it is). We break the sanctions for reasons of conscience. FIRSTLY, we do not accept that the government ought to have the right to a moral veto over our attempts to help individuals in Iraq. To submit our applications to the DTI is to accept their right to refuse our applications. They ought not to have this power to block humanitarian aid, and we refuse to recognise its legitimacy. SECONDLY, we believe that the licensing system is an integral part of the sanctions regime, and that to cooperate with the licensing process is to grant legitimacy to an illegal and deeply immoral system, and to collude with it. This we refuse to do. THIRDLY, we believe that breaking the sanctions is an effective way of directly challenging the sanctions regime, and that it is a valid and powerful act of civil disobedience against a criminal policy. FOURTHLY, we recognise that humanitarian aid from outside, whether from individuals, or even from governments, cannot solve the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. The current crisis is rooted in the destruction and decay of the civilian health infrastructure (including the water purification, sewage, sanitation, power generation, and hospital/clinic infrastructure) over the past eight years. The level of expenditure required to reduce the appalling level of child malnutrition is therefore several orders of magnitude greater than the available humanitarian aid. We follow Denis Halliday, former UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, in concluding that aid is not the answer: the answer is to lift the economic sanctions. Last July, Mr Halliday described humanitarian aid as ‘only band-aid stuff’, and said the obvious response to the current humanitarian crisis was ‘to lift sanctions and pump in money’ (Independent, 23 July 1998). Therefore we must focus our energies on those activities that can lead to the lifting of the economic sanctions as soon as possible. We believe that breaking the sanctions can contribute to this end. WE BELIEVE that breaking the sanctions, and forcing the issue of the sanctions higher onto the agenda, is a morally appropriate, and legal, means of trying to attend to the basic needs of the 22 million people of Iraq. WE HOPE that by breaking the sanctions we are bringing forward the day when the sanctions will be lifted. Only then can the needs of those who are suffering in Iraq begin to be properly attended to. Milan Rai From the report of Voices US November 1998 delegation: Doctors at Basra’s main hospital, where twenty to thirty children are born each day, reported that last month alone, they delivered 80 infants who were born with congenital deformities. This is more than three times the rate of children born with birth defects in the United States, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Chief Resident Dr. Abdul Firas Abbas introduced team members to a 34 year old woman, Suat Jabar, who was eight months pregnant and had just learned that her baby would be born without a brain. There was no previous family history of congenital birth defects. Dr. Firas said that normally three children were born, each day, with congenital deformities. When he was a medical student, he would read about such cases and examine pictures from foreign textbooks, but rarely encountered patients with birth defects. Unavailable Dr. Firas insisted that he could observe no quantitative or qualitative improvement [through ‘oil-for-food’]. He then told the story of a woman who was infertile for ten years and then finally gave birth to a child who was born with hypoglycemia, which, if untreated, can lead to fatal brain damage. The child needed a simple hypertonic solution of glucose, salt and water, but none was available. "Because of this unavailability of this simple, cheapest solution, the baby died. After 10 years of wait, the baby died because of the cheapest of drugs. It is very painful to us and to the family." The Battleground Another doctor estimated that the survival rate of children with leukemia is less than 10% in Basra, whereas in the US and UK, the survival rate is generally higher than 75% (Leukemia Trust, Britain; Nelson’s Textbook of Pediatrics). In an eight year state of siege imposed on civilians, hospitals are the battlegrounds, children the casualties. 18) A WALK FOR LIFE
Why would anyone want to spend 17 days walking 200 miles along busy roads in the depths of winter? On the very first morning, I was beginning to wonder that myself. The temperature was well below freezing, fresh snow lay on the ground, and a bitter wind howled as a dozen of us stood shivering outside the Pentagon at 7am. However, the weather soon improved, as did our spirits. The walk, organised by Voices US, took us from the Pentagon in Washington DC to the UN in New York; our message was that the UN should likewise walk away from the Pentagon, away from US military dominance, and the sanctions and bombs which have caused so much suffering in Iraq over the last eight and a half years. Ten of us walked the whole way, whilst others joined in for shorter periods. To spread our message we carried large signs and handed out leaflets as we walked. Endless Abuse After a while the endless abuse from passing drivers just washed over us, but I found this apparent hatred of an entire nation extremely sad. It often made me think of the very different reaction Mil and I had met in Iraq last summer, where people were unfailingly polite and kind to us, and didn’t seem to have any hatred towards the British as a people, despite what our government was doing to them. Although at times it felt as if every other driver was hurling obscenities at us - or even, on occasion, hurling missiles - a random and unscientific survey revealed that in fact we were getting roughly two positive responses - smiles, waves, thumbs-up - to each negative one. Several times passersby stopped to give us money or walk a few blocks with us. Changing Minds Walking through cities gave us a chance to stop and talk to people and even, on occasion, change their minds. In a rundown neighbourhood in Baltimore, two young men ran out of their house shouting, "Bomb them!" A couple of us stopped and pointed out that the sanctions were killing around 5,000 children every month in Iraq. Their faces dropped. "I didn’t know children were dying. That’s not right," one of them said. We talked some more, and when we left they sent us off with shouts of, "We’re with you - good luck!" So it is that ordinary people, if given the facts, can usually reach the right conclusion. Along the way we talked to hundreds of people, and were seen by thousands more. Most were hearing for the first time about the effects of sanctions, and many were so shocked that they immediately resolved to join the campaign. So it is, little by little, that resistance to the criminal policies of our governments will grow. Our responsibility is to just keep on walking. Andrea Needham [Andrea’s participation in the walk was entirely self-financed.] 19) PEACE IN COURT
As we go to press, we await the results of two court hearings. On 16 and 17 December, as the US and UK rained bombs on Iraq, members of voices took part in well-publicized acts of civil disobedience against the war. Sylvia Boyes of Iraqi People First wrote on the Cenotaph ‘tony, not in my name’. Gabriel Carlyle and Andrea Needham wrote ‘stop the killing’ and ‘lift the sanctions’ and threw buckets of fake blood on the walls of the Foreign Office. Sylvia has been convicted and has raised £400 to pay her fine from 400 people (who each signed a petition). Gabriel and Andrea are going to court on a charge of criminal damage. |
5 Caledonian Road, King's Cross, London N1 9DX telephone : 0845 458 2564 voices@viwuk.freeserve.co.uk |
