By Anna Bachmann
Voices in the Wilderness
Thursday, 15 April 2004

We’re back from Fallujah!

Our friends had been in Fallujah, Iraq for nearly 48 hours, so it was time to consider our options. Two of us had remained behind to act as support and to explain to everyone else why our friends had gone against all advice and traveled back into Fallujah to provide aid support in the city. Fallujah has become a bloody, flashpoint between the Coalition Forces and the Iraqi resistance. As support we decided that if we didn’t heard from the group by 3 pm, we would need to act.

We put a plan of action together and started making our calls. Then we split up and I went to INTERSOS, a humanitarian aid organization, in the hopes that they had contacts in Fallujah. They took our information but only promised to pass it along. With nothing else to do but wait, I decided to track down the status of Ahmed, the young man with MS who’s case I have been following (I can report some success … he’s been seen at the MS Clinic and we’ll try and talk to
this doctor this weekend).

The following is the first letter we received from Kathy Kelly who is in prison in Pekin, IL. Also, we have posted a photo gallery of Kathy Kelly’s Send Off

April 7th

Dear friends,

Where to start? Blue recycling bins, of course! Within a month of recycling at Pekin FPC, $5,000 was earned (recompense for prisoners: free Hershey Bars). I’m 40 pages into Poisonwood Bible (completely enjoyable) and am diffidently eyeing the electric typewriter. I’ll buy my ribbon soon. And stamps! Kindly, ever so kindly, women have “set me me up” with coffee, creamer, pens, cups — the basics. Once again, I’m in a world of imprisoned beauty, this time without the fences. As before, I’m meeting women who are vulnerable, hurt, anxious and brave. I’m particularly impressed by the strength required as women adjust to more than a decade of confinement, or more than a year, for that matter. “We babysit ourselves here,” said several women, matter-of-factly. “Why can’t I do that in my own home where I could care for my children?” asked one young mother, “It makes no sense to spend years here.” Now I see why Bonnie Urfer (of Nukewatch), after her release from a minimum security prison said, “It’s like a nursing home.” The “patients” aren’t bedridden. Rather, the residents are their own “attendants” in an insanely organized and bland setting, but the place carries an aura of sadness, similar to what I always feel entering a nursing home.

We are receiving little good news from Falluja. It seems that the mainstream press is presenting an even more one-sided than usual version of the events in Iraq. Presented here is a compilation of articles, eyewitness acounts, audio from Democracy Now, and photos.