Contact: Voices In The Wilderness-(Chicago): 773-784-8065
For Immediate Release

(Chicago)–Voices in the Wilderness (VITW) filed an Answer and Counter Claim in US District Court in Washington DC on Friday September 26, 2003, in response to the fines for bringing medicine and relief to Iraq. A $20,000 penalty was first threatened in December 1998 by the US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), but was not actually imposed until November 2002, at the height of the Bush Administration’s preparation to invade Iraq. At that time VITW was sponsoring a team of US civilians and other internationals in Baghdad; they remained there from October 2002 through April 2003 as witnesses against war and in sympathy with the ordinary people of Iraq.

VITW was founded in Chicago in 1996. For the next seven years, it campaigned for lifting the US/UN economic sanctions that caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in Iraq from malnutrition, disease, and inadequate medical care. As part of this campaign, VITW organized over 70 delegations to Iraq between 1996 and 2003. Delegation members carried donated medical supplies, toys, and educational materials to hospitals, schools, and families in Iraq. Some of the VITW activities were acts of civil disobedience, in direct violation of US laws, Executive Orders, and regulations that authorized economic sanctions.

However, in its response to the Justice Department filed September 26th in US District Court for the District of Columbia, VITW points out that the laws and Executive Orders cited by the Justice Department in its “Complaint” all specifically exempt donated medical supplies from the sanctions. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 United States Code, Section 1702 (a)), cited by the Justice Department as the authority for the penalty, specifically states as follows:

“The authority granted to the President by this section does not include the authority to regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly …donations… of articles, such as food, clothing, and medicine, intended to be used to relieve human suffering…”

The Justice Department “Complaint for Civil Penalties,” originally filed on June 20, 2003 in U.S. court for the District of Columbia, accuses VITW of “exporting medical supplies from the United States to Iraq” in July 1998, and again in September 1998.

The VITW response, filed today, argues that these specific actions were not illegal under the law and Executive Orders cited by the Justice Department and, therefore the Justice Department claim against VITW needs to be dismissed. VITW challenges the right of the US government to punish anyone for bringing humanitarian aid to civilians in Iraq or elsewhere. VITW asks for a jury trial, for a declaration that the sanctions violated international law, for an injunction prohibiting the government from trying to punish anyone else for providing humanitarian aid, and for damages that will go to pay for medicines for the people of Iraq.

VITW also asks the Court to issue a permanent injunction prohibiting the US government from prosecuting or enforcing civil fines against people for donations of food, clothing, or medicine intended to be used to relieve human suffering. VITW continues to sponsor a team of US citizens residing in Baghdad to monitor the effects of the US occupation of Iraq, and to support Iraqi people in restoring their society. VITW will refuse to pay the fines, and instead will raise $20,000 for continued relief for people in Iraq.