 June 2002
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Patrica Watson, Editor Sara Burke, Assistant Editor Pat Farren, Founding Editor 2161 Massachusetts Ave. Telephone number: Fax number:
pwork@igc.org Peacework has been published monthly since 1972, intended to serve as a source of dependable information to those who strive for peace and justice and are committed to furthering the nonviolent social change necessary to achieve them. Rooted in Quaker values and informed by AFSC experience and initiatives, Peacework offers a forum for organizers, fostering coalition-building and teaching the methods and strategies that work in the global and local community. Peacework seeks to serve as an incubator for social transformation, introducing a younger generation to a deeper analysis of problems and issues, reminding and re-inspiring long-term activists, encouraging the generations to listen to each other, and creating space for the voices of the disenfranchised. Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
American Quakers Challenge US Role in Iraq On May 30, a delegation of Quakers left for Iraq, defying US restrictions on travel to that country. The delegation was organized by the Campaign of Conscience for the People of Iraq, a multifaith effort to end the economic sanctions. The trip calls attention to the devastating impact of sanctions on the civilian population and raises concerns about the threats from the US of another attack against Iraq. "Through personal experiences we want to change the way Americans view Iraq," said Peter Lems, AFSC program assistant for Iraq. "The sanctions have extracted an unacceptable human cost." According to UNICEF, 106,000 children under the age of five die in Iraq each year as a result of the sanctions, which translates to twelve children who die every hour or a child every five minutes. One grim legacy of the Gulf War in 1990/91 was the intentional ruin of Iraq's civilian infrastructure. The longstanding damage of the war resulted not from stray bombs, but from precision-guided weapons that struck electrical plants, water treatment centers, oil refineries, and transportation networks. Vast areas of the country have no potable water, with contaminated water the number one killer of children under five. The sanctions violate provisions of the Geneva Convention, the UN Declaration of Human Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The delegation will visit sites where water purifiers, sent by the Campaign without US Treasury Department permission, are in use. The seven-person delegation will visit partners and projects in the Baghdad area before traveling south to Basra, returning June 13. The delegation will visit a new project area where the Campaign will rebuild the Al Naour Water Treatment Plant outside the city of Baqooba in an agricultural region known as "the citrus basket of Iraq." The plant will serve five schools and more than 9000 people in many scattered villages. Reconstruction will be guided by Iraqi engineers with a local labor force. All materials will be purchased locally in Iraq. Started in 1999 by AFSC and the New York-based Fellowship of Reconciliation, and joined by Pax Christi, the Campaign of Conscience for the People of Iraq works to end the economic sanctions and engages in projects that attempt to avert human tragedy in the region. Recently, the Campaign launched a peace pledge to oppose another attack against Iraq. With 6500 signatures, the pledge will be delivered to every member of the US Congress during coordinated lobby days in Washington DC from June 15-19. "The sanctions are the most comprehensive economic blockage imposed on a nation in modern history," said Lems. "UN resolution 1409, passed earlier this month, has modified the sanctions, but presents no substantial change to the structure of the sanctions regime." Lems pointed out there is no allowance for badly needed foreign investment, and no mechanism to introduce revenue into the economy. Tun Myat, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq has stated that "no matter how much you try and modify [the existing program], it is not designed for--and it will never be--a substitute for normal economic activity."
"Twelve years of sanctions have led to an almost complete
breakdown in economic, medical, social, and educational structures,"
Lems stresses. "The US Government has used Saddam Hussein
as an excuse to justify the horrific number of deaths caused by
the sanctions."
For additional information about the Campaign of Conscience,
please contact Peter Lems 215/241-7170 or visit the web site www.afsc.org.
To donate to the Campaign of Conscience, AFSC/Iraq Peace-building
Program, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102.
6/15-18; Washington DC; educational & grassroots advocacy program open to all people concerned about US policy in the Middle East; Phyllis Dennis (Institute for Policy Studies), Iraqi intellectual Leith Kubba & former UNSCOM weapons inspector Scott Ritter will join us; Education for Peace in Iraq Center, 1101 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington DC 20003; 202/543-6176; www.saveageneration.org 
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