In These Times
April 14, 2003
SECTION: IN PERSON; Pg. 8
BYLINE: BY JOHN MALKIN

For her work as co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end the economic sanctions against the people of Iraq, Kathy Kelly has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Voices in the Wilderness delivers medicine and other supplies to Iraqis in defiance of U.S. government sanctions. As a result, it has faced tens of thousands of dollars in fines. John Malkin spoke with Kelly in January.

How many times have you been to Iraq, and what kind of supplies does Voices in the Wilderness deliver to the Iraqi people?

When I go this time, I think it will be my 18th trip. We’ve sent 58 delegations and assisted in getting quite a few more groups over there. There are about 15 people over there right now, called the Iraq Peace Team. Mainly we bring medicines and medical relief supplies. Some school supplies. Medical textbooks on compact discs are quite valuable. What we bring is really a pittance in relation to the need. It is like a drop in the ocean. We are by no stretch of the imagination a medical relief group.

Since 1991, the U.S. government has bombed Iraq many times and has imposed sanctions on that country. One could say that the Gulf War really never ended. What have you witnessed and experienced during your visits to Iraq?

When I first started to go in 1996, there was nothing that could prepare me and others for what we were seeing inside the hospitals. One friend of mine likened it to a Death Row for infants. The conditions were so bad that no matter how much the staff would try to keep the hospital sanitary, the first thing that would hit you when you walked in the door was the terrible stench. You simply can’t walk away from these situations of misery and poverty and children being punished to death. There are also many, many scenes of destruction and disaster that we visited, as a result of bombing.

What is the importance of nonviolence and nonviolent resistance?

The mentor experience I had in nonviolence came very much from people who had been part of the Freedom Rides, who were very active in the civil rights movement, who became war tax refusers and went to jail frequently because of their beliefs. What I learned from them was the idea that courage is the ability to control your fear. There are many, many reasons, when you’re involved in the kinds of struggles that nonviolent direct action places you within, to perhaps be fearful. But you begin to catch courage from other people. And you begin to catch courage even from some of the people you read about.

When you begin to become active further with nonviolence, there are certain novels that you can read, moving in the direction of following the precepts of people like Gandhi and King and Barbara Deming and Jesus and Dorothy Day. As Barbara Deming put it, “We are all part of one another.” There is an opportunity to put one’s life on alignment with the most cherished and deep beliefs that one holds. And that is a gift.

I think that people act nonviolently all of the time, but are just not aware of it.

I think that’s certainly true. But I would assert there hasn’t been that same demand that we use nonviolent means of negotiating and mediation and diplomacy, being willing to go the extra mile. Finding the carrot that would draw people to the negotiating table: We haven’t been willing to use that so much in our foreign policy and in the political life.

What frightens me is that many people expect that whomever we elect is going to be somebody who is willing to use threat and force to preserve the status quo that Americans presently, by and large, enjoy. And that is a big, big danger. Because for people who look at the way we live and look at the way we treat people beyond our borders, who are so unfortunate as to find themselves on the “bad” or “wrong” side of U.S. policy, there is going to be a seething antagonism and resentment.

Here in this country, I can defy U.S. laws and I will be treated, by and large, with kid gloves. Even if I am put in prison, I am not going to experience the same kind of stigma or guilt that a lot of prisoners feel. But people beyond the United States, and people who are poor or people of color within the United States, are not treated with kid gloves. In fact, there seems to be increasingly no mercy, very little forgiveness, within U.S. systems.

Do you think Iraq has weapons of mass destruction?

I don’t know. I hope that the weapons inspection process will continue. I’d like to see the weapon inspection process continue all throughout Middle Eastern countries and in the United States as well. But does Iraq pose a threat to the United States, such that we have to act in self-defense? That is patently absurd. Even if Iraq did possess components for mass destruction, there is no way they would have the means for delivery. Even to their nearest neighbors.

Tell me about your plans to return to Iraq. Will Voices in the Wilderness remain if the U.S. government starts a full-fledged war?

I will be traveling back to Iraq to rejoin the Iraq Peace Team in a week and a half. It is our intention to be there and to be alongside people whom we’ve gotten to know. We simply can’t imagine saying, “Well, it’s getting a lot rougher now, we’ve got an access out of here, so we’re going to take off now. Good luck.” So, we will certainly stay.

This interview originally aired on micro-powered Free Radio Santa Cruz, 96.3 FM, in California. To read more from this interview, go to www.inthesetimes.com.