by Marie Braun, WAMM

August 6, 2000, marks 55 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, which killed more than 100,000 civilians. August 6th also marks the ten year anniversary of the UN sanctions against Iraq, the most comprehensive blockade ever imposed on a country in the history of the UN. Since 1990, Iraq has witnessed the slow death of over 1.5 million civilians, including hundreds of thousands of children. Sanctions have become the new weapon of mass destruction; the new style of "humanitarian" war.

In addition, since January, 1999, United States and British forces have flown more than 6,000 sorties over Iraq, dropped more than 1,800 bombs, and hit more than 450 targets in the longest sustained U.S. air operation since the Vietnam War. The bombing continues today, causing numerous civilian deaths and injuries.

People from Minnesota and others who have traveled to Iraq are haunted by the faces and stories of the people they have encountered, and the pain and devastation they have witnessed. My own experience in Iraq took me into hospital wards filled with children dying from dysentery, cholera, and diarrhea because they had been poisoned by contaminated water.

I saw children dying from respiratory infections, which had become full body infections, because they had no antibiotics. I saw children dying because of a lack of vitamins and from illnesses and cancers not seen before the Gulf War. I saw mothers who had already lost two children and whose third child was deathly ill. And I looked into the eyes of those mothers. It is something I will never forget.

It is time to say: "Enough! Stop the Bombing! End the Sanctions on Iraq Now!"

A Call to Action: Local Mobilization for the Tenth Anniversary of Sanctions

WAMM and the Twin Cities Campaign to Lift Sanctions, together with several other peace and justice organizations in the Twin Cities, are organizing a number of events to bring the devastating effects of the sanctions to the attention of the public.

August 2 * Peace Vigil on the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue Bridge

Meet on the St. Paul side of the bridge at 5:00 p.m. If you drive, you may park in the Living Word Church parking lot at Otis and Marshall (one block east of the bridge). Banners, posters, and pictures will be provided. Our goal is to attract more than one hundred people to this event, 75 more than our weekly average of 25 people.

August 3-5 * Fast in Solidarity with the Children of Iraq

Join our three-day liquids-only fast in solidarity with the starving children of Iraq. Some people from the group will fast for the entire three days; others may skip one meal or fast for whatever length of time they can. Those committed to the three-day fast will be on the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue Bridge from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day as a public witness to the devastating effects of sanctions. Church leaders and politicians will be invited to come to the bridge and speak out against this moral outrage which continues to be perpetrated against the Iraqi people.

August 6 * Gathering in the Peace Garden

Gather at the Lyndale Park Peace Garden at 4:45 p.m. for music, a short program, and a walk around Lake Harriet with banners, posters, and pictures of the children of Iraq. We will join with other groups to reflect on the past, create hope for the future, and act in the present.

We urge you to join us in these events and are asking those who can to make a commitment to be present at one or more of these activities. There is strength in numbers! We will insist, together, that the sanctions be lifted. Together we can bring an end to what Denis Halliday, former UN Assistant Secretary General and Coordinator of the "oil for food" program, rightly calls "genocide in Iraq."

*************************************************

Summer 2000

Voices in Basra

Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end the economic sanctions on Iraq, sent a five-member delegation to live in Basra, Iraq, for two months beginning July 12, 2000. The purpose of the delegation is to witness, record, and partake in the experience of living daily life under the ten-year old embargo.

Delegation members will live with Iraqi families, without air conditioners or telephones, and will subsist only on the contents of the Iraqi food basket. The group plans to travel from Basra to Baghdad, August 5 - 9, to participate in a fast across from the UN Headquarters. This fast will coincide with the Twin Cities' three-day fast (see article this page).

Weekly reports detailing their activities will be filed with various contacts in the U.S., including the Twin Cities Campaign to Lift Sanctions. Two of the five members of the Summer 2000 Voices in Basra project are from Minnesota: Lisa Gizzi of St. Paul and Mark McGuire of Winona.

Voices in the Wilderness
1460 West Carmen Avenue
Chicago, IL 60640
773-784-8065 (phone)
773-784-8837 (fax)
kkelly@igc.apc.org
www.nonviolence.org/vitw

Twin Cities Campaign to Lift Sanctions
612-522-1861 (phone)
braun044@tc.umn.edu
www.circlevision.org