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On
July 29, 2003 the US government served Voices
in the Wilderness with a summons. This summons calls on
Voices to respond in 20 days to civil charges, stating that
we have not paid $20,000 in fines plus interest and late fees,
for having traveled to Iraq with medicines and toys since 1996.
US citizens who went out as Human
Shields to Iraq before the invasion of Iraq are also being
fined.
Read
the Summons and responses from Voices US and more information
See the latest on this case - 30 Sept 03
What you can do - Voices US are calling
for 20,000 voices to send a letter to US Attorney General
John Ashcroft to decline to ask the court for a civil judgment
against Voices - Click here to read and sign
the peition
Voices US are also calling
for $20,000 in donations to to raised towards helping Iraqi
families - they pledge not to give your money to the US government!
Voices
UK response, 13 August 2003
Letter
sent to newspaper editors:
Suzanne Goldenberg reports on the attempt by the US Justice
[sic] Department to collect $20,000 in fines from our sister
organisation, Voices in the Wilderness US, for breaking the
economic sanctions on Iraq by taking medical supplies and
toys there without an export licence (Human shields face
12 years' jail for visiting Iraq, August 13th).
Between March 1996 and May 2003 (when economic sanctions were
finally lifted) Voices sent over 70 sanctions-breaking
delegations to Iraq. We broke these sanctions - risking fines
and imprisonment - as an act of civil disobedience
to protest a policy which, according to UNICEF, contributed
to the deaths of over 500,000 Iraqi children and 'resulted in
untold suffering for millions of people - physical, mental and
cultural'
(CAFOD).
Today, despite their continued failure to provide for the
security and basic humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people and
with Iraqis and US soldiers being killed on a daily basis,
the US Government chooses to spend its resources attacking
those struggling for peace and social justice. We urge your
readers to raise their own voices against the injustice and
hypocrisy of this lawsuit by signing the letter of protest
to US Attorney General John Ashcroft at www.voicesuk.org.
Gabriel Carlyle
Emma Sangster
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