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American Anti-War Activists to Distribute Medicines and Visit Victims of US Bombings in Basra
Basra, Sept. 26-American anti-war activists with the Iraq Peace Team and Voices in the Wilderness arrived in Iraq Sunday and will be delivering medicine and humanitarian supplies in Basra Thursday. The seven activists (Barbara Lubin, CA; Nathan Mauger, WA; Danny Muller, IL; Bill Quigley, LA; David Smith-Ferri, CA; Leah Wells, CA; Henry Williamson, SC) brought between US$20,000-$30,000 worth of medicines.
The medicines were purchased and donated in the US and Jordan, and will be given to the Bridges to Baghdad Children's Clinic in Basra. Half the donations were raised by American Bert Sacks, a member of Voices in the Wilderness, in response to a $10,000 fine he received recently from the US Office of Foreign Assets Control. The fine was assessed for violations of US and international sanctions law directly related to bringing humanitarian goods to Iraq without prior approval. Mr. Sacks has refused to pay the fine in America or to bow to sanctions law. Instead, he will continue to violate sanctions, and pay the fine in Iraq by facilitating this delivery of these needed humanitarian supplies.
The other half of the donations was raised by Barbara Lubin, Director of the Middle East Children's Alliance in Berkeley California, and a long-time advocate for peace in the Middle East and for the rights of children in the region. Ms. Lubin will be present to help deliver the medicine and to speak with reporters. "Children are suffering and dying needlessly in Iraq. An entire generation is being deprived of its rights to health, education, and security." Iraqi hospitals are trying to prepare for massive casualties from another US-led military assault on the country. "It's an outrage, " says Ms. Lubin. "We should drop sanctions not bombs."
In addition to giving the clinic medicines, Iraq Peace Team activists will visit with Um Heider at her home in the al-Jumeriyah neighborhood of Basra. Um Heider is the mother of a family whose home was bombed in January of 1999 by a US warplane patroling the so-called "southern no-fly zone." Her six year old son was killed in that bombing, and another son was maimed. Iraq Pace team activists will visit with this family in hopes of reconciliation between American and Iraqi people and an end to the US war against Iraq.
Iraq Peace Team is a project of Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end the sanctions on Iraq. The goal is to place hundreds of international activists in major Iraqi cities before and during another attack. Activists will document and report on the humanitarian consequences a new war would have on ordinary people living in Iraq.
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