For Immediate Release:
September 13, 2005

Contact: Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Jeff Leys: 773-573-5380
Farah Mokhtareizadeh: 856-236-6141

CHICAGO, IL and WASHINGTON DC, September 13–For the next sixteen days, advocates for economic justice in Iraq will fast outside the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.) in Washington, D.C. With the IMF and World Bank meeting in ten days, fasters with Voices for Creative Nonviolence will call for the cancellation of the $125 billion of debt incurred by Saddam Hussein and now thrust upon the Iraqi people.

From September 27-29, fasters will move on to the United Nations building in New York City while the UN Compensation Commission meets in Geneva. Both the IMF and UNCC meetings are critical because they will determine the United States’ and international demands for Iraq’s repayment of debt and reparations.

The UNCC’s claims for Iraqi debt relate to the invasion and occupation of Kuwait in 1990-91 by Saddam Hussein’s regime. Iraq has paid $19 billion in reparations claims, including over $2 billion since the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime. The UNCC imposed an additional $33 billion in war reparations claims against Iraq which are yet to be paid. Virtually all unpaid claims are owed to oil companies or governments. Virtually all claims of individual people are settled and paid.

Fast participants will present five key demands which must be met for economic justice for Iraqis:

“Voices in the Wilderness Will Refuse to Comply with Order”

For Further Information: Jeff Leys or Kathy Kelly at 773-784-8065

Chicago-On August 12, 2005 U.S. Federal District Judge John Bates ordered payment of a $20,000 fine imposed against Voices in the Wilderness. Voices was fined for bringing medicine to Iraq in a classic campaign of open nonviolent civil disobedience to challenge the economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the U.N. against Iraq. The U.S. Treasury Department initially imposed the fine in 2002, days after Voices participated in international actions to oppose the U.S. buildup for war against Iraq.

Voices in the Wilderness issued the following statement:

“Today, the judiciary branch of the U.S. government completed a perfect trifecta of inhumanity in upholding a $20,000 fine against Voices in the Wilderness for bringing medicine to Iraqi citizens. Judge Bates agrees that it was lawful and proper for the U.S. government to deny needed drugs and medical supplies to Iraq’s most vulnerable citizens, despite the evidence that several hundred thousand innocent children were dying because of brutal economic sanctions.

“Voices will not pay a penny of this fine. The economic sanctions regime imposed brutal and lethal punishment on Iraqi people. The U.S. government would not allow Iraq to rebuild its water treatment system after the U.S. military deliberately destroyed it in 1991. The U.S. government denied Iraq the ability to purchase blood bags, medical needles and medicine in adequate supplies-destroying Iraq’s health care system.

“We chose to travel to Iraq in order to openly challenge our country’s war against the Iraqi people. We fully understood that our acts could result in criminal or civil charges. We acted because when our country’s government is committing a grievous, criminal act, it is incumbent upon each of us to challenge in every nonviolent manner possible the acts of the government.

“We continue to oppose the U.S. occupation of Iraq, which continues the devastation of the Iraqi people. Over the past two years of occupation, the health care and water systems in Iraq have not improved. Nearly 300,000 children under the age of 5 now suffer from acute child malnutrition. It’s likely that over 100,000 Iraqis have died because of the occupation-either killed outright by military action or died because of the lack of safe drinking water, adequate health care, lack of food. What has our country wrought in Iraq?

“We choose to continue our non-cooperation with the government’s war on the Iraqi people through the simple act of refusing to pay this fine. To pay the fine would be to collaborate with the U.S. government’s ongoing war against Iraq. We will not collaborate.

“We fully understand that the U.S. government may take other action against Voices in the Wilderness, or possibly us as individuals, for our continued refusal to collaborate with the government’s policies. But we invite representatives from the government to enter into dialogue with us about how best to correct the misguided, ill-conceived and criminal acts of our country towards the Iraqi people. We invite all U.S. citizens to pause and consider how we might bring about an end to the blood shed and the violence in Iraq-an end to the occupation and payment of reparations to Iraq for the devastation our country has wrought upon the Iraqi people these past 15 years.

“We pause to ponder the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who asked of himself and his co-conspirators in resistance to Hitler, whether they were yet of any use. We too live in times of unspeakable peril and violence. We too live in times when questioning and resisting our government is the one path remaining to act for justice. We too have struggled and seen untold numbers of innocent people die at our government’s hand. We too answer as Bonhoeffer did, that yes, indeed, our acts and fidelity to our brothers and sisters throughout the world are not only of use, but of absolute necessity. We invite all to join us in a conspiracy of life to end our country’s war against the Iraqi people.”

#####

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 5, 2005

FURTHER INFORMATION:
Scott Blackburn at 773-784-8065
Jeff Leys at cell 773-573-5380 (on July 5th & 6th on site in Washington, D.C.)

PARTICIPANTS INCLUDE:
Kathy Kelly, co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness and 2 time nominee for Nobel Peace Prize
Bill Quigley, Attorney representing Voices in the Wilderness
Bert Sacks, Voices delegate fined by the U.S. government for travelling to Iraq

COURT HEARING:
9:00 A.M., July 6th
U.S. Federal District Court - Courtroom of Judge John Bates
3rd and Constitution NW, Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.-Representatives of Voices in the Wilderness will gather on the steps of the U.S. Federal District Court at 8:30 a.m. and again at 2:00 p.m., before and following a hearing in Judge Bates’s courtroom on July 6th as the U.S. government continues to pursue a 20,000 dollar fine against the organization. Judge Bates has requested additional oral argument. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control alleges that a 1998 Voices delegation violated economic sanctions law against Iraq when it delivered medical supplies to Iraqis. Voices organized over 70 such delegations as part of this campaign of civil disobedience.

At 2:00 p.m., lawyers for Voices in the Wilderness will offer an update on the case. Voices members will then walk a short distance to the Treasury Department and there hold a rally, carrying signs that call the Treasury Department to accountability for enacting economic sanctions that directly contributed to sickness and death in Iraq over a 15 year period. The group notes that the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control paid almost no attention to U.S. oil companies that violated economic sanctions, and yet was swift to threaten and penalize groups that traveled to Iraq for humanitarian reasons.

Please help with media outreach! Help highlight this message of debt cancellation and reconstruction by sending this press release to local media. You can also download the PDF version of this press release for printing and faxing.

---

Issued by Fast for Economic Justice for Iraq

For Immediate Release June 21, 2005

Contact: Jeff Leys at +41-076-5327845
Kathy Kelly at +41-076-4203126

Geneva, Switzerland–June 21–This week the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development is meeting in Geneva to discuss issues of debt accumulated by countries around the world. The debt crisis in Iraq is a central point of discussion during today’s session.

Eight international social justice activists enter the 5th day without food in Geneva and Amman, Jordan demanding economic justice for Iraq. A central fast demand is that the odious debt incurred by Saddam Hussein’s government be cancelled outright and without any economic conditions attached to the cancellation. Debt claims against Iraq would be submitted to an international arbitration tribunal. This tribunal would determine whether the debt is odious–that is, whether it was incurred by Saddam Hussein’s regime to advance his own interests at the expense of the Iraqi people. All such odious debt would be cancelled.

Please help with media outreach! Help highlight this message of debt cancellation and reconstruction by sending this press release to local media. You can also download the PDF version of this press release here for printing and faxing.

---

For Immediate Release

CONTACTS:
Jeff Leys of Voices in the Wilderness
Phone: +1-773-784-8065
Email: jeffleys [at] vitw.org
Justin Alexander of Jubilee Iraq
Jordan: +962 796497506 or Iraq: +964 7902308186
Email: justin [at] jubileeiraq.org

June 16–30 At U.N. In Geneva, Switzerland

Chicago, Illinois, United States & Baghdad, Iraq — International social justice activists (from Iraq, the U.S., the U.K. and elsewhere) will fast at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland from June 16th to June 30th to demand economic justice for Iraqi citizens. The fast will address the key issues of war reparations claims imposed against Iraq, debt cancellation and reconstruction. Hans von Sponek will join the fasters on June 16. Mr. Von Sponek resigned as director of the United Nations Humanitarian Assistance program in Iraq in 2000 in protest of the economic sanctions.