Baghdad, Iraq
Zehira Houfani (writer and journalist),
Member of the Montreal Iraq Solidarity Project

I couldn’t believe my eyes! Is it so easy to torture someone in an Iraq liberated from Saddam?

Yet the marks on the body of Al-Mountadhar Fadhel, a young Iraqi student of 23 years old, were so undeniably real, shocking, and above all completely unacceptable.

Al-Mountadhar lives in Hay El-houria, one of the poor, run-down neighbourhoods in the outskirts of Baghdad. Most of the streets and allies are inaccessible to cars. They are either too broken up or are drowned in dirty water which nearly reaches up to the sidewalks. “It is the same everywhere since the Americans arrived in Baghdad,” Ahmed, a taxi-driver, explained. In fact, the destruction of Iraqi state buildings, such as the ministries, the factories, the universities, the administrative centres, the city halls, etc., threw millions of Iraqi workers out of work; including those city employees, among others, who were responsible for collecting the garbage. All are on forced unemployment, just at a time when there is so much to do to prevent infectious diseases and other epidemics in this extremely hot weather. It is more than 50� and the garbage has not been collected for weeks in Baghdad neighbourhoods. It took us more than twenty minutes to move less than one kilometre and arrive at El-machtel street where Al-Mountadhar lives.

Baghdad, Iraq
Zehira Houfani (writer and journalist),
Member of the Montreal Iraq Solidarity Project

It was around 6 pm, this Sunday July 27th 2003, when the El-Birhana family left their home in their car, driving towards their neighbourhood Church, Al-Mansour, Hay Al-Andalous, right in the middle of Baghdad. The El-Birhana family was comprised of the mother and her two sons, Tamer et Mazen, respectively 35 and 27 years old. Tamer was driving the family vehicle and was proceeding normally towards the end of the alley, when suddently at the point of turning, the car was sprayed with US soldiers gunfire. The entire Birhana family was killed instantly in a terrifying bloodbath. The car that was following immediately behind, with two passengers on board, experienced the same fate at the hand of US soldiers.

During the recent war in Iraq, peace activist Kathy Kelly was shocked and awed by media coverage of the conflict, which she says embedded journalists grossly misrepresented in their reports. Kelly, who was in Baghdad throughout March, provides her own account of life among Iraqi civilians with her talk “Embedded Humanitarian: Eyewitness to the Iraq War.” In 1996, Kelly cofounded Voices in the Wilderness, which delivers medical supplies to Iraqis. The group also takes every opportunity to piss off governing bodies by ignoring economic sanctions and refusing to pay taxes for war; the group has made seventy visits to Iraq, giving special attention to children. Leading the nonviolent war resistance earned Kelly a Nobel Peace Prize nomination in 2000.

By the time American attacks on Iraq rolled around three years later, Voices in the Wilderness had organized the Iraq Peace Team to live alongside citizens before, during and after bombings and occupation. Kelly has been to Iraq fifteen times since 1996. She presents her take on the situation there at 7 p.m. Thursday. The talk, at All Souls Unitarian Church (4501 Walnut), is free. For more information, call 913-321-2206.– Sarah Smarsh.

Copyright 2003 Kansas City Pitch, LLC
Pitch Weekly (Kansas City KS & Kansas City MO)

Chicago Daily Herald
July 16, 2003, Wednesday
BYLINE: Patrick Garmoe

At 7 p.m. today at McHenry County College, Kathy Kelly, three- time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, will speak about her personal Iraq war experience.

She remained in Baghdad throughout the U.S. invasion of Iraq and during that time visited hospitals and helped provide shelter to the homeless.

Kelly is an advocate for non violence and a human rights activist. She founded Voices in the Wilderness, which has worked to end economic sanctions on Iraq. Kelly will speak about her experiences.