Published: Fri October 17, 2003, by Phyllis BENNIS

The U.S.-driven UN resolution passed by the Security Council provides only an internationalist fig-leaf for Washington’s occupation ; the occupation remains illegal and in violation of the UN Charter. The new resolution will do nothing to change the fundamental problems of the U.S. occupation of Iraq — the occupation’s illegitimacy, its unilateralism, and its responsibility for so much destruction in Iraq and for the on-going crisis of violence in the country. The new resolution, designed as much for Bush’s domestic political gain as for international purposes, does nothing to make the occupation acceptable, and we remain adamantly opposed to it.

Age: 54, From: New York, NY
Health and human rights worker Cathy has lived in many places, including Panama, Puerto Rico, and Germany. She later studied Geriatric nursing and worked as a nurse in Hamburg, Germany, as well as obtaining an R.N. degree in the United States. She spent 10 years in Bolivia, working in the area of health and human rights. She was a founding member of Andean Information Network, a grassroots non-governmental organization, where her work focused largely on documenting and publicizing the negative effects of U.S.”War on Drugs” in Bolivia and the human rights abuses (arbitrary detentions, wounded, deaths) that were/are a direct effect of those policies. This work took her to Washington, DC, to the U.S. State Department and Senators’ offices.

With the Iraq Peace Team, Cathy remained in Iraq throughout the most recent invasion and during the first ten days of US Coalition Force occupation. While in Iraq, she remain in correspondence with a wide network of people through the assistance of companions with whom she lives and works at the Maryhouse Catholic Worker community in New York City.

Caoimhe was born in 1978 in Dublin. She spent most of her childhood in Canada and Southern Africa (Mauritius and Zimbabwe). While growing up she travelled extensively around Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe with her parents who were working with developmental aid and social justice projects. She left Zimbabwe in 1997 and moved to New York, where she spent a year working with The Catholic Worker and other groups. While living at the Worker she participated in a 21-day fast outside the U.N. with Voices in the Wilderness which was her first direct contact with the group. In 1998 she spent a year working in Guatemala with returned refugees, and then spent two years in Chiapas accompianing a community of resistance. The Chiapans’ struggle, and the collective and inclusive nature of it both inspired and educated her as to the power of non-violent resistance. Caoimhe then returned to Ireland for 6 months before joining a Voices delegation to Iraq January 2002. She then travelled to occupied Palestine where she spent a year, almost exclusively in Balata and Jenin Refugee Camps. Present in Palestine for the massive military invasions of Febuary and April of that year, she volunteered with the Red Crescent, U.P.M.R.C., and I.S.M. Having lost a number of close friends in the Jenin massacre, Caoimhe lived on in the camp until she was shot and shortly after deported by the Israeli army late last year. She spent the four months after her deportation giving over 80 talks, public meetings, and interviews across Ireland, London, and Wales. Having participated in the Shannon Peace Camp, set up to oppose the Irish government’s decision to allow U.S. warplanes to refuel in Ireland in the lead-up to the war, she was arrested on a number of occasions. Caoimhe travelled to Iraq in mid-April to join Voices in the Wilderness in Baghdad. She has spent the past five months meeting and working with Iraqi grassroots groups and individuals who are attempting to mobilise Iraqi civil society in exploring non-violent means of resistance. She is also working to help initiate a campaign seeking justice for the relatives of Iraqis killed by Occupation forces.