Dan Winters:COLORADO CAMPAIGN FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE
Dan Winters:
From Boulder to Baghdad
(and visits to Jordan and Palestine, Jan. 12-27th)
Photo: Carmel Zucker, Boulder Daily Camera
3.01.01: CCMEP Press Release, Update on Israel Barring Boulder Activist Bringing Medicine to Palestinians...Israeli Consulate in California: Medicine will not be delivered or returned (Letter from Israel Consulate included)
1.30.01: Boulder man back from Iraq: Scientist records high levels of DU radiation at Basra battleground, Colorado Daily
1.30.01: Israeli Guards Confiscate Medicine. Antibiotics were intended for Palestinian clinics, Colorado Daily
1.26.01: CCMEP Press Release I, Israel Bars Boulder Activist from Bringing Medicine to Palestinians
1.26.01: CCMEP Press Release II, Boulder Activist on U.S. Delegation to Iraq: Extremely High Levels of Radiation From Depleted Uranium Found in Iraq.
1.24.01: Message from Dan Winters in Palestine
Int'l Action Center Messages from Iraq: 1.19.01, 1.17.01, 1.16.01, 1.15.01, 1.14.01
1.13.01: Int'l Action Center Press Release
1.11.01: "On a Humanitarian Mission", Longmont Daily Times-Call
1.08.01: "Boulder man joins international delegation to Iraq", Boulder Daily Camera
1.08.01: "Allard hangs tough on Iraq. Sen. urged to consider firsthand accounts of humanitarian ‘crisis’", Colorado Daily
1:08.01: CCMEP Press Release, Boulder Activist Flying Into Baghdad - Violation of Sanctions. Holding Press Conference Prior to Senator Allard's Meeting
1.04.01: Int'l Action Center Press Release, Ramsey Clark's Sanctions Challenge IV: Delegation Set to Defy U.S. Policy Arrives in Amman on the Way to Baghdad
Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace
901 W. 14th Ave., #7 * Denver, CO 80204 * (303) 320-5994 * ccmep@hotmail.com*
www.ccmep.org
Press Release * 3/1/01
For Immediate Release
Contact: Dan Winters, 303-444-8405 dancwinters@yahoo.com
Rob Prince, 303-455-3437 hominoid@email.msn.com
UPDATE ON ISRAEL BARRING BOULDER ACTIVIST FROM
BRINGING MEDICINE TO PALESTINIANS
Israeli Consulate in California: Medicine will not be delivered or returned
In a letter recently received by the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace, the Israeli Consulate Office in California has informed Boulder activist Dan Winters that the recent Israeli confiscation of $18,000 worth of medicine was legitimate. The medicine, according to the letter, will not be returned to Winters nor delivered to Palestinian hospitals which desperately need the antibiotics.
The
letter from the Israeli Consulate is attached.
On Sunday, January 21st, Israeli Customs Officials confiscated $18,000 worth of antibiotics that Boulder activist Dan Winters and New York activist, born in Jerusalem, Samia Halaby was attempting to deliver to Palestinian hospitals and clinics. Winters had just come from a weeklong peace delegation in Iraq.
"It is important to note," said Winters, "that this medicine had the power to save the lives of 2275 individuals many of whom would be children."
The 91 large bottles of drugs were valued at $18,000 and were intended to treat pneumonia, infections, gastroenteritis, Intifada injuries and wounds. Pneumonia is now widespread in Palestine
Dan Winters is a member of the Rocky Mountain Peace &
Justice Center and the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace. His trip to the
middle-east was organized by The International Action Center.
Boulder man back from Iraq
Scientist records high levels of DU radiation at Basra battleground
January 30, 2001
By MICHAEL A. de YOANNA
Colorado
Daily
Staff Writer
A mother cares for her terminally ill child in a children's hospital in Basra,
Iraq. More than 500,000 children are believed to have died as a result of the
U.S.-backed economic sanctions that deprive the civilian population of food,
medicines, and clean water.
Boulder resident Dan Winters has returned from the Middle East
after spending several weeks as part of an effort to deliver medical supplies to
Iraq and to test for radiation linked to Gulf War battlegrounds.
The 46-person delegation to Baghdad that included Winters was
coordinated by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark through the
International Action Center.
In violation of the U.N. embargo against Iraq and U.S. law
that makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to travel to Iraq, the delegation
delivered more than $100,000-worth of donated medicine to Iraqi hospitals.
Winters and several members of the delegation, including
Clark, flew to the Basra province across the no-fly zone imposed by the United
Nations to visit hospitals.
Winters called Basra medical facilities "Spartan"
and said doctors he spoke with expressed frustrations over the number of cancers
they cannot treat due to a lack of medicine and facilities.
The United Nations has blamed sanctions for the lack of
medicine, food and clean water that have declined since 1990 when sanctions were
first imposed for the unnecessary deaths of more than 1 million Iraqis -- an
estimated 500,000 of them children.
Doctors told Winters that birth defects have increased in
Basra since the Gulf War. Cases of children born without a brain or their heart
outside their chest cavity, for instance, have risen, Winters said.
"There's a real pain in the doctors' eyes," Winters
said. "It's tough on them. They just want the medicine to do the
treatments."
In one hospital, Winters said, a line of cots with sheets constituted the
majority of care provided by doctors.
"They were dispensing medicine meant for five children
evenly to 45 children," Winters said. "None of the doctors wanted to
play God and decide which ones get to live. So they divided the number of pills
by the number of patients." The delegation conducted research that might help explain the cause of the
cancers.
Scientist Damacio Lopez, a member of the delegation who
traveled to Gulf War tank battlegrounds, measured radiation levels that are
connected to depleted uranium, or DU, weapons systems that are known to be used
by NATO.
As Lopez conducted his work on Jan. 17, the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) called for an investigation of sites in the Balkans
hit by NATO shells containing DU.
DU rounds are dense armor-piercing ammunition that emit
radioactive dust at impact that can be dangerous and linger in the environment
for millions of years if not cleaned up. The IAEA said studies on at least 30
sites in the Balkans would help determine whether debris from the shells causes
cancer.
DU has been named as a contributor to the medically anomalous
Gulf War Syndrome.
Studies of soil and the destroyed Iraqi tanks rusting on the battlegrounds
showed the existence of levels of radiation beyond Lopez's initial expectations,
Winters said.
"He thought there might be something wrong with the
machinery," Winters said. "As he approached a hole that was blast in a
tank, (the Geiger counter) made a constant buzz, instead of clicking. At first
he thought there was something wrong. But he tested the unit."
Lopez read 1,945 rads in examining the DU round impact point on the tank. Lopez also measured more than 2,500 rads while testing an unexploded shell investigators with the delegation said was likely fired by a NATO helicopter gun ship, Winters said.
"The most (Lopez) expected in the battle area was 400 rads," Winters
said. "This was unprecedented."
Winters said members of the delegation believe spent nuclear
fuel rods may have been combined with DU during the manufacturing process to
make the shells more powerful, but also more radioactive.
"If we find that this is true," Winters said,
"southern Iraq and even parts of Kuwait is a disaster just waiting to
happen, if not happening already."
The causes of other health problems were easier to identify,
Winters said.
The delegation found that many water treatment facilities were
operating at unsafe levels. Because the chlorine used in decontaminating water
is considered by the United Nations a "dual use" item -- something
that may also be used to construct a weapon -- many facilities fail to fully
treat water because they do not have access to the proper supplies.
Nutrition in Iraq is also substandard, Winters said. The
controversial Oil-for-Food program is providing little more than sustenance, he
said.
Two U.N. officials responsible for running the program --
Denis Halliday and Hans Von Sponeck -- resigned one after the other in protest
of the sanctions, which they blame on the country's deepening humanitarian
crisis.
Winters said he noticed many of Iraq's young men appeared to have missed
puberty.
"There were 17-year-olds that looked like they were
12," Winters said. "Their condition is created by the low caloric
intake combined with periodic sickness during childhood. This is pretty basic
stuff that's easy to see for yourself." Winters said he thinks poverty contributes to the problem.
"A school teacher, for example, makes $5 a month,"
Winters said. "Even though a house is provided for that job, that's not
enough to get by on. The Oil-for-Food program provides care baskets of food, but
it's just the bare minimums. People are on the border of starvation."
In one Basra village Winters visited, NATO shells recently hit
a family home, killing a child.
"This runs counter to what most Americans are led to
believe," Winters said.
Most Americans, Winters said, assume that NATO's last use of
deadly force in Iraq was in 1998, when the U.S. and Britain launched Operation
Desert Fox after weapons inspections efforts collapsed due to Iraq's refusal to
comply with the requests of weapons inspectors.
"Most people don't realize that we are still
bombing," Winters said.
NATO has discretion to identify "targets of
opportunity" on the ground in the no-fly zone, Winters said. If NATO
detects Iraqi radar, fighter jets may strike at a military target.
"We don't always hit the target," Winters said.
"That's what people in Iraq have been saying. I saw the damage."
Winters said he was approached by the child's mother as he
stood outside the home.
"She said, why are we still at war with her country?" Winters said.
On Jan. 17, Winters witnessed a protest in Baghdad marking the
10th anniversary of the beginning of Operation Desert Storm. "There were thousands of students from Iraq and elsewhere, and ordinary
Iraqis all saying enough is enough."
The trip to the Middle East wasn't Winters' first.
Ten years ago, Winters came to Baghdad as a part of the
International Gulf Peace Team that opposed the impending war, favoring further
diplomatic negotiations.
But on Jan. 17, 1991, the bombs came raining down. Winters
wound up stuck at the Al Rashid Hotel for nearly a week because Saddam Hussein
International Airport was bombed and closed -- just 90 minutes prior to the
departure of his scheduled flight.
He made his way out of the country to Jordan on a chartered
bus.
Israeli Guards Confiscate Medicine
Antibiotics were intended for Palestinian clinics
January 30, 2001
By Michael A. de Yoanna
Colorado Daily Staff Writer
Boulder resident Dan Winters reports that while in the Middle East, he attempted to cross Israel's border at Jordan with a briefcase filled with an estimated $18,000 in medicine, but had it confiscated by Israeli border police.
The medicine -- 91 containers holding 500 pills of antibiotics -- was meant for Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, some the victims of recent escalations in Arab-Israeli violence.
Israeli officials told Winters that paperwork was not properly completed.
Winters was joined in crossing the border by Samia Halaby. Both are members of the International Action Center delegation that weeks earlier arrived in Iraq with hundreds of thousands of dollars in medicine.
"Many of these who badly need this medication are children." Halaby wrote of the incident in a statement issued to the press. "Pneumonia is now especially wide-spread in Palestine, and out medication might have saved many victims. Other patients with infections, gastroenteritis, and wounds would have also benefited from this medication."
The two visited cities and villages in the West Bank for several days, observing the effects of recent escalations in Arab-Israeli violence.
On returning to the border station on Jan. 26 to cross back into Jordan, Israeli officials declined to return the briefcase to Halaby, who crossed hours prior to Winters.
"They said I broke the law and could be arrested," Halaby wrote. "I told them to stop their threats and feel some shame, but they only threatened more and yelled."
Winters later came through the same station.
"I asked for the briefcase," Winters said, "but they said they had given it to (Halaby). ... Then I found out they didn't really return it to her. They lied."
Winters has contacted the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem.
Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace
901 W. 14th Ave., #7 * Denver, CO 80204 * (303)
320-5994 * ccmep@hotmail.com* www.ccmep.org
Press Release
For Immediate Release
Contact: Majid Hindi, (303) 978-3957 hindim@jm.com
Mark Cohen,
(303) 733-7037 buildingbridges@mindspring.com
Sarah
Flounders, International Action Center, 212-633-6646, iacenter@iacenter.org
After Jan. 27th: Dan Winters, 444-8405 dancwinters@yahoo.com
ISRAEL BARS BOULDER ACTIVIST FROM BRINGING
MEDICINE TO PALESTINIANS
$18,000 worth of antibiotics is confiscated by Israeli
Customs
On Sunday, January 21st, Israeli Customs Officials confiscated $18,000 worth of antibiotics that Boulder activist Dan Winters was attempting to deliver to Palestinian hospitals and clinics. Winters had just come from a weeklong peace delegation in Iraq.
The Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace will be holding a press conference upon Dan Winters return to Denver on January 27th. He's flying "stand-by" so we will advise you of the time and location of the press conference very soon. Or you can call the press contacts above.
Joining Dan Winters in attempting to bring the medicine into Palestine was another U.S. citizen, Ms. Samia Halaby. Both attempted to cross into the occupied West Bank via the Allenby bridge.
Halaby and Winters were entering Israel from Jordan on Sunday January 21 at noon when customs authorities told them that their charitable attempt was tantamount to smuggling and all that they had was forthwith confiscated. In a moment of honesty, a high official of the customs service informed them that at best they had the slimmest of chances of picking it up on their return.
"It is important to note," said Winters, "that this medicine had the power to save the lives of 2275 individuals many of whom would be children."
The 91 large bottles of drugs were valued at $18,000 and were intended to treat pneumonia, infections, gastroenteritis, Intifada injuries and wounds. Pneumonia is now widespread in Palestine
Halaby and Winters had just arrived in Amman after completing the Iraqi Sanctions Challenge part of their journey with a 47 member delegation to Iraq. The International Action Center, located in New York City, traveled to Iraq to deliver medicine which was a direct violation of the United States law and UN resolutions. Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, heading the delegation, said that "sanctions violate basic human rights and could not be used as a reason to deny medicine to the people of Iraq"
Dan Winters is a member of the Rocky Mountain Peace & Justice Center and the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace. His trip to the middle-east was organized by The International Action Center.
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Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace
901 W. 14th Ave., #7 * Denver, CO 80204 * (303)
320-5994 * ccmep@hotmail.com* www.ccmep.org
Press Release
For Immediate Release
Contact: Mary Walters, (303) 333-7936 mfwalter21@juno.com
Ben Harnke,
(303) 864-9303 harnke@aol.com
Sarah
Flounders, International Action Center, 212-633-6646, iacenter@iacenter.org
After January 27th: Dan Winters, 303-444-8405 dancwinters@yahoo.com
After February 6th: Damacio Lopez, 505 867-0141
BOULDER ACTIVIST ON U.S. DELEGATION TO IRAQ: EXTREMELY HIGH LEVELS OF RADIATION FROM DEPLETED URANIUM FOUND IN IRAQ
Researcher from New Mexico Suffers Minor Burns on his Wrists from Radiation
A large U.S. delegation to Iraq, that includes Boulder activist Dan Winters, has done soil samples and found extremely high levels of radiations from depleted uranium ("DU"). Damacio Lopez, the executive director of the International Depleted Uranium Study Team (I-DUST) based in Soccoro, New Mexico, while testing for depleted uranium (DU) in Iraq has reported levels of radiation far in excess of levels found in depleted uranium. Lopez reported "levels as high as 2,545 rads" while testing for DU in an area near Basra.
The Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace will be holding a press conference upon Dan Winters return to Denver on January 27th. He's flying "stand-by" so we will advise you of the time and location of the press conference very soon. Or you can call the press contacts above.
Mr. Lopez was with a delegation from the International Action Center (IAC), headed by Ramsey Clark, the former Attorney General, of the United States. Mr. Lopez was in Iraq to study sites which had sustained damage either during the 1991 Gulf War or in subsequent attacks on Iraq.
On January 17, Mr. Lopez, Ramsey Clark and a number of Iraqi official traveled to a battle area left from the 1991 war. Lopez was able to take radiation levels from Iraqi tanks which had been destroyed during the war. On one tank he recorded a level of 1945 rads. The reading was taken from an entry hole of what he said was a DU type shell. The background level, which is what occurs naturally, was about 15 rads.
He expected a DU reading of perhaps 200 rads, the reading was almost 800 % higher than expected. He also found "an unexploded 30 mm shell which had a reading of 2545 rads, again far in excess of the expected reading for DU." Lopez said "this could be due to the use fuel rods taken from nuclear reactors after they are either de-activated" or they must be replaced in a working reactor."
NATO has repeatedly denied any use of "used" of nuclear plant fuel rods in any weapons systems. Dr. Alim Yacoub the dean of the Medical College in Basra said they "have found very high incidences of birth deformities and childhood leukemia" in Basra. They attribute this to the use of DU during the war.
If in fact the readings taken by Lopez are confirmed, the situation could be much graver for the general population. Lopez suffered minor burns on both wrists during his sampling. He attributed this to a gap between his gloves and his coat. "I did not expect readings anywhere these levels, and I am afraid I did not take the proper precautions at first" said Lopez.
The people of Iraq have suffered a great deal under the U.S.-led sanctions with U.N. reports that over 500,000 children have died since the end of the war in 1991. Dr. Yacoub said the sanctions are immoral and against International Law, the Geneva I & II convention and the Hague I & II convention and that the use of DU on the population "was a disaster for the people of Iraq"
Dan Winters, of Boulder, who was in Iraq from Jan. 13-20 with the I.A.C. said, "I found the average person trying to overcome a great many difficulties, the water treatment plants only have half of the necessary chemicals needed to properly treat the water, due to sanctions limiting the necessary chemicals"
"I saw hospitals without anything approaching the necessary drugs needed to treat patients," said Winters. "And the sewage treatment plant must dump raw sewage in the Tigris river whenever the power goes off - which is a frequent occurrence." Locally, Winters represents the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace and the Rocky Mountain Peace & Justice Center.
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Message from Dan Winters in Palestine, Jan. 24, 2001
I am in Hebron on the West Bank and leave for Jordan later today. Arrive Colo either this Fri night or Sat. This is a city of about 120,000 Palestinians with an enclave of 400 Jews with 2,000 soldiers "protecting" them. For 90 days during the current intefada (Oct - Dec) there was a 24 hour curfew on every living person - you go into the street and you are arrested - in some cases shot. Every 4 days or so, people were allowed to shop for 3-4 hours. I am at the Christian Peacekeeper Team house (CPT). They have been in this town for 5 years to come between the two sides so that the Palestinians would have someone to "speak" for them against the military.
Peace, Dan
Int'l Action Center Message from Iraq, Jan. 19, 2001
U.S. DELEGATION FINDS HIGH-RADIOACTIVITY IN IRAQI DESERT
RAMSEY CLARK AND SANCTIONS CHALLENGE HEAD BACK TO EUROPE, U.S. AFTER SOLIDARITY TRIP TO IRAQ/PALESTINIANS CHARGE ISRAELI MILITARY USES DEPLETED URANIUM
(Reports from Baghdad, Iraq; Amman, Jordan; and Rome, Italy)
A investigating team from a U.S. solidarity delegation to Iraq on Jan. 18 found "extremely high levels of radioactivity" in soil samples in the Iraqi desert south of Basra. In that region during the 1991 war against Iraq U.S. forces fired hundreds of thousands of shells reinforced with depleted uranium.
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and New Mexican
activist and researcher Damacio Lopez had separated from the main body of
Clark's International Action Center's 50-person
"Iraq Sanctions Challenge" to collect the soil samples.
On Jan. 19, Clark reported on his team's findings of high radiation levels at a news conference at the Italian Parliament in Rome. He condemned the Pentagon's use of DU weapons in Iraq and Yugoslavia and demanded that scientists from these countries be included in the investigation of the dangers to humans of DU.
A storm of protest in Europe has brought to international
attention the threat to soldiers and civilians from pollution by radioactive and
toxic DU shells in Kosovo and Bosnia. There have already been massive protests
in Greece,
with hundreds of Greek soldiers demanding they leave Kosovo.
Other protests are planned in Italy and Portugal and meetings have been held in Belgium, France and Spain.
From Amman, Jordan, IAC co-director Sara Flounders said that "while DU poisoning of European and U.S. soldiers are criminal, the poisoning and pollution of the civilian areas of Kosovo, Bosnia and to an even greater degree Iraq are war crimes. We hold the Pentagon responsible for the damage done to the population and the environment of the Balkans and of the area including parts of Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
"A report from Geneva," said Flounders, "indicates that besides depleted uranium, some of the U.S. shells contained measurable amounts of plutonium and Uranium-236, even more dangerous pollutants than depleted uranium. This only adds to U.S. culpability in this matter.
"Today's Jordan Times reports on its front page," continued Flounders, "that Palestinian organizations have charged the Israelis with using DU against the Intifada. Through the Pentagon, which supplies most Israeli weapons, the Israeli military is supplied with DU. We in the IAC had raised last November the possibility that Israeli forces were also using this illegal weapon."
In the days before the Rome news conference, both the Iraqi and Yugoslav governments had condemned the use of DU on their territories. Belgrade said it would demand that the International War Crimes Court at The Hague include DU use as a war crime to be investigated. [for reports from Iraq and Yugoslavia see the DU page on the IAC web site at www.iacenter.org]
Int'l Action Center Message from Iraq, Jan. 17, 2001
On Tuesday the delegation visited the Al Karka elementary school. Children were in exams when they arrived. Claudia Lefko and Katherine Wolfwood showed some drawings done by children in Mass. For Children in Iraq. They presented the principal with art supplies and left the pictures there. They will return the next day with the hope that the children they met in Iraq would make paintings and drawings for the children of their classes.
We went to a large a food distribution center and were given a tour of the facilities. The Iraqi Rationing system has been praised by several UN organizations as one of the very best. The food prices are subsidized by the Government. Each person receives ration cards that are good for one month.
The ration per person is 2 kilos sugar, 3 kilos Rice, 3 Kilos flour , 350 gram soup, 159 grams tea, 25 kilos cooking oil, salt , for babies 8 cans of mil and 2 cans of baby food.
The population of Iraq is between 23 and 24 million, and each one is counted by computer.
The delegation went to Babylon in the afternoon and learned about the history of one of the best known historical sites in the world.
In the evening, the delegation visited, the Iraq women's
federation and spoke with Director Dr. Razaq. The federation is open to all
women all religions and different stratas. There are close to 2000 centers in
the country. In 1977, 70.7 % women were illiterate, in 1990, only 12 % were
illiterate. Under the
embargo, illiteracy rates have worsened. Women needed to wash cloth by hand,
sew, cook and read and tend to any sick children. Many women have to leave their
jobs because these activities are so time consuming. Children may have to quit
school to help earn money to support the family. The
director said: " The biggest problem for female students is that they
cannot get scientific references." The federation had programs for
reproductive education and health. On average, the Iraqi family has 5
children.
The demonstration was large and very militant. Thousands (1 or 2) marched to a UN building and had an angry protest. US and Israeli flags were burned. Chants " Down, Down USA" , " Down, Down British crown". The students were from Iraq and Arab and African countries. Other participants included a delegation from Belgium that rode bicycles from Amman to Baghdad. Our delegation was mentioned in the Iraqi media.
On Wednesday, the delegation split into 2 groups. One group went to Samara to visit the State Enterprise for drug Industries and Medical Appliances. They can produce 100-150 different products and can supply 80% of Iraq's drug needs.
After Iraq signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the UN 4 ½ years ago, they thought things would improve. But the U.S. has blocked many contracts that could improve the situation. For example, under ideal conditions a pharmaceutical company would replace its production machinery every 10-15 years. The production lines in this factory were 25 years old. The Industry was in the process of buying new lines after the Iran-Iraq war. These production lines were stopped because of the sanctions.
Right now if they want to make 1 million tablets, they would only get 100,000 to 150,000 good enough to use. Normally a new machine might get 950,000 to 960,000 good pills.
A smaller delegation of the Sanctions Challenge flew to Basra to investigate the devastation caused by DU. About DU, the director of the Women's Federation said "It is time for the world to know the criminal act that has been committed by the U.S. against Iraq. Because of DU, cancer is spreading." A large party of Basra officials and local doctors, experts on DU met Ramsey Clark and ISC delegates at the Basra airport.
Ramsey Clark and anti-DU activist Damacio López traveled 150 kilometers southwest of Basra to the sight of Iraqi tanks that had been destroyed by DU shells. Lopez did reading for Radiation.
The rest of the delegation visited Basra Pediatric hospital, attended a DU briefing conducted by medical doctors and other researchers on this issue. They also visited victims of the January '99 US bombing of a Basra neighborhood.
Before the student demonstration on the 10th anniversary of the war, Ramsey Clark said, "The greatest hope is in the children, and the U.S. killing, stunting, and harming an entire generation in Iraq, and it must be stopped now".
Int'l Action Center Message from Iraq, Jan. 16, 2001
U.S. DELEGATION RALLIES IN THE STREETS OF BAGHDAD ON TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF WAR ON IRAQ
The Iraq Sanctions Challenge, a delegation of 50 activists led by former U.S. Attorney General and founder of the International Action Center (IAC) joined a demonstration in downtown Baghdad today marking the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led war on Iraq.
During the demonstration, the delegation expressed their strong opposition to the sanctions by joining thousands of protesters in chants such as "Down, Down U.S.A" and "Clinton, Albright, You can't hide, Sanctions Equal Genocide". The protest began at 2 am, when the US and British bombs were first dropped on sleeping Baghdad ten years ago. Many protesters held torches to illuminate the streets; but they were also used to burn American flags.
The group arrived in Baghdad by air the night of January 13th, acting in defiance of the U.S./UN imposed no-fly zones. They have spent the last three days visiting sites that demonstrate the general consequences of the embargo and have been affected by the frequent bombing of the past ten years. Sites include a bomb shelter, elementary schools, a University, water and sewage treatment plants, and hospitals.
The delegation is delivering over $ 1.5 million in medical and school supplies. Sara Flounders, co-director of IAC, explained, "This is only a drop in the bucket compared to the need created by the sanctions. The donation of these goods is an act of solidarity as was attendance at this demonstration tonight."
In a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, Ramsey Clark denounced U.S. policy toward Iraq. Clark said: "This is genocide. The progress that Iraq has made must not be lost at 12 noon on January 20th when George Bush is inaugurated. Inspections teams and Oil-for-food program are both frauds from the beginning. There is not justification for the sanctions. They are a war by other means."
In the next two days the delegation will visit a Pharmaceutical Plant, the Minister of Health, a school for the blind, the Iraqi Women's Federation, a food distribution center, and a battle ground with known concentration of Depleted Uranium (DU) in its soil, among other places.
On board with the delegation is New Mexican activist Damacio Lopez, who will be collecting soil samples from the DU sites. A storm of protest in Europe has brought to international attention the threat to soldiers and civilians from pollution by radioactive and toxic DU shells. Years before the U.S. used DU in Yugoslavia, they used it in Iraq. While the rest of the delegation will be returning to the States, Lopez will take the soil samples to Europe for analysis, since the United States has refused to do the study.
Int'l Action Center Message from Iraq, 1/15/01
Hello friends, family and supporters of the Iraq Sanctions Challenge. We received a fax this afternoon from the delegation. They have kept very busy and made five stops today -- an Elementary school, a University, a water treatment plant and a sewage treatment plant. They also met with the Minister of Trade and the Deputy Prime minister.
At the elementary school, they saw students in class. The school was run down but the children were very nice and in good spirits. They chanted in Arabic in support of the Palestinians and against Zionism: " Palestine is Arab Land, Down with Zionism".
The delegates met with the head of El Moustanserya University, which was founded 600 years ago. The university offers different programs -- medical, law, engineering, etc -- and serves many thousands of students. They haven't had new textbooks and equipment since the sanctions. They can't buy any chemicals or biological materials to learn with. They still have free education. Many students have had to quit school to get jobs and help their family. Our group had a good time talking with the students and report that it was "hard to leave".
They visited the Al Wathba water treatment plant in Baghdad. They treat 35,000 cubic meter of water a day from the Tigris river, meeting 35 % of Baghdad's needs. Without full access to chlorine, the plant is unable to work at its full capacity, which would treat 70,000 cubic meters per day.
The sewage treatment plant at Rostamia in Baghdad is in similar state of disrepair. Only forty percent of the plant is working. One plant worker has died and another has been hospitalized due to lack of protective equipment.
The delegates asked about the condition of the pipes and the response was "They're terrible, don't ask".
They met with the Minister of Trade, Dr. Mohammed Mahdi Salih, who talked about food in Iraq after the sanctions. After the sanctions of August 1990,
all imported food was cancelled, though they depended on that food for over 60 % of the national supply. After the Security Council Resolution 687,
Iraq adopted an efficient rationing system that provided equal amounts of food to all people living in Iraq, including people of different religions and foreigners.
They met with Tariq Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister, who declared "We are determined to protect our sovereignty".
Quote of the day from Ramsey Clark: " Whatever the Security Council does, the nations and the people of the world will see that sanctions do not continue".
Int' l Action Center Message from Baghdad, 1/14/01
We met with our host organization, "The Organization of Friendship and Solidarity with Iraq" (OFSI). The head of OFSI Dr. Hashimi said: "You will see a nation of siege. The siege is from outsiders who say they do it in accordance with law and legality and UN resolutions"
"It is a siege to achieve unjustified objectives. We hold on in spite of the suffering and the pain and we will continue to hold on for as long as necessary. We know that if we give up we will lose Iraq".
"In the North, the Kurdish area, the area is under US/UN control. These are two major cities. Each city has its own government. Their own prime ministers and their own relations with outside countries. They have battles and arguments with ache other. They are totally divided. They are under U.S. control. This is what the rest of Iraq would be like".
"Show us a country that has cooperated with the US in the last 15 years, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, that has an improved situation".
About U.N.S.C. Resolution 1284: American and British say we
must let inspectors in, then the embargo is over, but if you read the Document
in 39 articles it never says that the sanctions will be lifted. Only one article
says that the Security Council can lift the sanctions, but only for 120 days.
After that it must be reviewed. The dropping of the embargo must be voted on by
security council every 6 months. The US must say yes. But if Iraq is caught in
the process of buying "prohibited
materials" or if the inspections teams or the IAEA write a negative letter,
the sanctions are renewed automatically.
Resolution 1284 goes on to demand that Iraq allow immediate,
unconditional and Unrestricted access to documents, equipment, vehicles,
personnel. This includes Iraqi gov't personnel. This agreement would put the
sanctions in a new ball game.
Resolution 1284 is permanent, while oil for food is temporary.
Oil for Food in the Reporting Period December 1996 to July
2000. (according to Kofi Annan's report):
$32 billion in oil sold
$8 billion of that reached Iraq
30% of the total went to compensation
$1.5 billion went to maintain US operations
$12 billion are frozen in the B&P bank
$3.5 billion are in contracts that the 661 committee has yet to approve -
(contracts for electrical, health, culture, education, water and others)
If you look at the numbers, 8 billion that Iraq gets:
4 years = 2 billion per year
2 billion = 166 million per month
166 million / 23 million people = roughly $7 per person per month
*UNSCOM (Or whatever the new inspections regime is) invented new procedures that must prove negatives. Iraq must prove it has good intentions toward its neighbors. (How do you do that?)
*this new "Pilot Situation" - they turned over all pilots in 1991 after the cease fire.
*$600 million in electrical contracts sitting in 661 committee. If they could get those contracts filled, we could get electricity to all the villages. They would have 24 hours. Items turned down by 661 committee: pumps, telephones, chlorine, tires for trucks, mobile phones.
Ramsey said: "this siege is genocide. The progress that Iraq has made must not be lost at 12 noon on Saturday, January 20th, when George Bush is inaugurated. Inspection teams and Oil-for-food are both frauds from the beginning. There is not justification for the sanctions. They are a war by other means".
Delegation visited:
Amariyah bomb Shelter
Very moving. This shelter was in residential neighborhood. Because of the war,
the neighborhood had no electricity or water, so people went there to be safe
from the bombs. On Feb. 13th, 1991, at 4am, 1 tomahawk penetrator missile came
through the ceiling, creating a huge hole and minutes later a second bomb
incinerated every one there. 408 killed. 14 survivors (estimated).
Saddam Children's Hospital:
Director of hospital Dr. Sami Delani. They have 360 beds. They see 1000 a day.
They admit 100 a day and must release 100 a day. Most common infections -
Gastrointeritis, malnutrition, infectious diseases - diarreah, measles, polio,
hepatitis, they have had an increase in leukemia, carcinoma, bone cancer, cervix
cancer has increased. They have passed through a different situation, still the
santation is not good, most equipment is out of order. In the 1980's Iraq had an
excellent vaccination program, now they don't have this at all. Number of
Leukemias 3 times higher. Abnormal deliveries with multiple birth defects
increased 3 fold. 661 committee denied a contract for bags for blood
transfusions. They reuse disposable syringes ad catheters and have no text books
- only gotten from delegations.
In the afternoon we visited a mosque and the market.
We plan to go to: Moustanserya University, Babylon, Water purification and Water Sewage plant, Food distribution center, national museum,iraqi women's federation, Demo for 10th anniversary, City of Samara, Pharmaceutical Plant, Aasra, DU cites to meet Tariq Aziz, minister of health.
PS from Sarat:
This is a very good delegation - serious, committed folks.
Everyone is working very well together.
There are many other delegations here in Baghdad from other countries. Hotel Al
Rashid is full for the first time.
A lot of press is here for the 10th anniversary. We flew in at 5 pm sat,
Jan 13th. A lot of press met us at the airport in
Baghdad. All medicine and supplies arrived safely also.
IAC Press Release, Jan. 13, 2001: US DELEGATION HEADED BY
FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL RAMSEY CLARK ARRIVES IN BAGHDAD IN SHOW OF
SOLIDARITY WITH IRAQI PEOPLE ON GULF WAR ANNIVERSARY
Group of 50 people delivers medicine in defiance of US -led UN sanctions, denounces U.S. government for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity for ten years of blockade and bombing
The International Action Center's (IAC) Fourth Iraq Sanctions Challenge headed by former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark arrived in Baghdad this afternoon, being among the first US delegations to fly to Iraq since the imposition of sanctions in 1990. They were greeted at the airport by enthusiastic applause and cheering, and joined Iraqis in chanting "US and UN end the sanctions now". The delegation is taking a political stance in opposition to the ten years old sanctions and bombing that have killed nearly two million people, holding this to be a Crime Against Humanity and a War Crime.
At a press conference at the airport Ramsey Clark declared, "The US must end the genocidal sanctions against Iraq. The whole world demands that the sanctions be lifted completely and immediately".
This is the fourth Iraq Sanctions Challenge to travel to Iraq and the first to have done so by air. In the past, they have been required to travel overland by bus from Amman to Baghdad, a 20 hour trip, because of the U.S. and British imposed no-fly zone, which prohibits flights over two thirds of Iraq. The Challenge is part of the growing opposition to the sanctions, which is taking a strong foothold worldwide. More than 100 flights have entered Iraq in the last five months.
The delegation brings together people from fifteen US states and seven countries, including Canada, Japan, Lebanon, Greece, Britain, Iceland and Palestine. It includes students, teachers, long time activists, social workers, lawyers, and others committed to peace. As part of their efforts to understand the consequences and defy the sanctions, tomorrow the delegation plans to visit the Association of Peace, Friendship, and Solidarity. On Jan. 16th, the tenth anniversary of the beginning of the Gulf War, they will be participating in a demonstration in Baghdad.
The Sanctions Challenge delegation is delivering over $1.5 million worth of medicine and school supplies - basic necessities that have been denied. As delegate and IAC co-coordinator Deirdre Sinnott points out, "This medical aid is a gift to the Iraqi people, but we know that this token from the United States does not bring back their bustling economy. Before the embargo, Iraq was one of the most prosperous nations in the region, and now the sanctions prevent the Iraqi government from meeting the basic needs of its population. We demand a complete end to the sanctions."
On
a humanitarian mission:
by Amanda
Arthur
Longmont
Daily Times-Call
January 11, 2001
BOULDER - Nothing's changed.
Ten
years after spending the first days of the Persian Gulf air war in Iraq, Boulder
activist Dan Winters is returning to the area because, as he says: "The
situation there has gotten no better; it has only gotten worse."
Winters,
63, who recently retired after 37 years in the computer field, returns to Iraq
on Friday to protest economic sanctions.
"Those
sanctions have killed over 500,000 children because the medications and simplest
things they need to survive aren't available," he said.
The
United States and United Kingdom imposed economic sanctions against Iraq in
August 1990 as a non-violent means of creating dissatisfaction among the Iraqi
people in hopes they would pressure Saddam Hussein to comply with international
standards of peace.
Winters
is returning with a group of 45 people, working with the International Action
Center to bring medication and other supplies to the Iraqi people.
"It's
illegal to bring anything, not just medicine, into Iraq without the expressed
consent of the U.S. Treasury," he said.
"We're
simply not going to abide by that. We don't think we have to ask anyone for
permission to bring in penicillin or antibiotics into that country."
The
IAC is spearheaded by Ramsey Clark, attorney general under President Lyndon
Johnson.
Ramsey has made several trips to Iraq and has been an outspoken opponent of the
sanctions.
Winters said Clark isn't the only governmental official to take a stand against
the sanctions.
Former U.N. humanitarian coordinator Dennis Halliday, who once headed the Food
for Oil project, resigned as a matter of conscience, Winters said. "Halliday
said the sanctions are equivalent to genocide."
The
Food for Oil program was created by the United Nations in December 1996 to help
Iraq rebuild its infrastructure.
Halliday
has said the program allows only one-third of the income Iraq would need to do
so.
Under the program, proceeds from oil sales go into a U.N. account from which
food and medicine is bought.
Iraq
is also allowed to spend $300 million of that money every six months to pay for
spare parts and other equipment to maintain its oil pumps.
One-third
of the money also goes for war reparations and to cover costs of the program.
The United Nations monitors purchases and distributes the aid to ensure Saddam
Hussein does not use it to bolster his military force.
Winters
also plans to visit hospitals, schools and public facilities.
The
embargo is not solely to blame for the adverse conditions in the area, Winters
said. He also points a finger at Saddam Hussein.
"Saddam
isn't my favorite person in the world. He certainly shares some of the blame,
but I can't control him. The only pressure I can put is on the U.S. government;
it's my responsibility," he said.
He said IAC members will inform U.S. customs officers that they are carrying the
medication.
"The breaking of the sanctions sends a message. You cannot say you will
follow a law whether or not it is just," he said.
He
said the IAC objective has never been secret, and the Jordanian airline is aware
the group will be carrying embargoed items.
"If
they try to stop us, we will have to decide what we will do in response. We can
sit down, we can do a hunger strike or we can refuse to do what they tell
us," he said.
Winters,
who is a member of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, said the
sanctions have led to the deaths of more people than those killed in the war
itself.
He
said the conditions are worsened because electricity is often shut off for
periods of 12 hours at a time.
"So
whatever medicine they do have goes bad because the refrigerators cannot keep it
cold," he said.
He said area water and sewage treatment plants are not up to par, causing water
to often be scarce and sewage to spill into the streets.
"You'd
have to upgrade these places to make them Third World," he said.
He
said during his stay that he plans to distribute the medication brought over in
carry-on luggage of IAC members and also to talk with Iraqi people to "find
out how they're doing," he said.
He
became involved with the Iraqi situation because he believed the conflict was
not receiving the attention it deserved.
"During
that time, the papers were filled with CU going to the Orange Bowl. That's
something strange when the country was thinking of going to war," he said.
He
added: "So, living in Boulder, I felt I had to make a statement of
interposition between the forces."
His activism led him to travel to Baghdad in 1991 with the Gulf Peace Team and
later to East Timor, charged by the United Nations as a volunteer to ensure the
1999 elections went smoothly and legally.
He said he believes the United States will eventually be scolded for its actions
in Iraq.
"History
will judge America harshly on what it has done to Iraq," he said.
Winters
urges his fellow Americans to join the fight to end the inhumanity in Iraq.
"If they (people) want to know what they can do locally, they can call their representatives and tell them to end the economic sanctions," he said.
Boulder man joins international delegation to Iraq
By Chris Barge
January 8, 2001
Boulder Daily Camera Staff Writer
Boulder activist Dan Winters says he's tired of being the polite interrogator of the powers-that-be.
Ten years after traveling to Iraq to protest the then-impending Gulf War, 1,000,000 Iraqis have died, half of them children, mostly from malnutrition as a direct result of U.S. economic sanctions, Winters said.
And so, on Friday, Winters, 63, will board a direct flight from the United States to Iraq. And while the trip to Iraq one decade ago allowed him and others in his group to protest an impending war, this trip will stand as a direct challenge to current U.S. law.
This will be the first time since the sanctions were set in 1990 that Americans have flown directly into Baghdad.
Winters will join an international delegation headed by Ramsey Clark, the former U.S. Attorney General under President Lyndon Johnson. The group plans to bring $80,000 worth of medical supplies to Iraq and raise awareness that the economic sanctions "are outrageous."
Winters will take the trip as a representative of both Boulder's Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center and the Denver-based Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace.
"He will be one of the few people who can compare what Iraq was like then to now," said Stephanie Phibbs, a member of the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace.
When last in Iraq, Winters spent seven days in the same Baghdad hotel as the CNN correspondents covering the erupting war. He said his memories of the kindness extended to him by Iraqi strangers who gave him food and shelter 10 years ago have affirmed to him the importance of bringing light to the suffering that continues to plague the "regular people" of Iraq.
He recalled an Iraqi woman in a bomb shelter who, while trying to calm the baby in her arms, asked Winters, "Why is President Bush trying to kill our children?"
Now that Bush's son has been elected president and Colin Powell — who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War — has been appointed Secretary of State, Winters said Americans must take drastic measures to get the sanctions lifted.
Today, the story of Iraqi suffering slips below the radar of most international press attention. Meanwhile, U.S. and United Nations personnel continue to bomb "strategic targets" whenever Saddam Hussein's forces violate no-fly zones or lock their radar on ally planes.
Winters said these counter-attacks have accidentally claimed the lives of more than 300 Iraqi citizens.
Winters and other area activists plan to question Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., about the sanctions at the senator's public town hall meeting at 3:30 p.m. today at Centura Health Senior Life Center, 1601 Lowell Blvd., Denver.
In a November, two-page, personal reply to one of Winters' many letters to the senator, Allard thanked Winters for taking time to share his views but said that he could not support a lifting of economic sanctions because it might assist Hussein's rearmament.
He added that the U.N.-proposed "Food for Oil" agreement would have provided the necessary food and medical supplies to the Iraqis who needed it if it hadn't taken Iraq until 1996 to accept the program, five years after it was proposed.
The "Food for Oil" program allows Iraq to sell oil and directs those profits into a special U.N. account which may only be used for humanitarian supplies.
"The U.N. has made every effort to allow for the necessary supplies for the citizens of Iraq under the Food for Oil program," Allard wrote.
"That's a lie," Winters said, adding that less than one-third of the money intended for the program has actually gone into it.
"I can't understand the profanity of our sanctions."
Winters retired as a computer consultant last April after a 36-year career that included teaching computer science and driving RTD buses part time.
Contact Chris Barge at (303) 473-1389 or bargec@thedailycamera.com.
Allard hangs tough on Iraq
Sen. urged to consider firsthand accounts of humanitarian ‘crisis’
By MICHAEL A. de YOANNA
January 8, 2001
Colorado
Daily Staff Writer
Sen. Wayne Allard's staunch support for the U.S.-led sanctions
against Iraq is essentially unchanged from a year ago despite an ongoing
campaign to change his mind.
Last year he told members of the Colorado Campaign for Middle
East Peace (CoCaMEP), which is leading a moral campaign to end the sanctions, he
is open to discussing the issue at his annual town hall meetings. So as an
influential senator privy to confidential information, Allard embarks on a
one-week tour of the state today where he will again face CoCaMEP.
The group says the situation in Iraq has reached
unconscionable levels. The United Nations blames the sanctions for the
starvation and malnutrition crisis that sends some 5,000 Iraqi children each
month to their graves. According to the UN, Iraq desperately lacks medical
resources, sanitation and clean water.
The sanctions have drawn the resignations of top UN officials
vested with managing the highly criticized "Food for Oil" program,
among them Denis Halliday and his successor, Hans Von Sponeck. Halliday, who
managed the program for more than a year from 1997-1998, said in an interview
with the Colorado Daily last month that the sanctions are "genocidal."
For Allard, a Republican, such a crisis, though
unconscionable, should be blamed on Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who continues
to be a regional threat. Intelligence sources say that in the 10 years since the
Gulf War, no progress has been made to disarm Iraq. According to the
intelligence community, the country is once again able to manufacture weapons of
mass destruction, including chemical and biological weapons and, perhaps,
nuclear missiles.
The senator gets most of his information from two committees
that hold great sway with the president -- the Senate Committee on Armed
Services and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. These committees
receive testimony from government officials, military personnel, the CIA, the
FBI and international relations theorists.
According to Allard's spokesman, Sean Conway, the senator
relies heavily on information from the intelligence committee. But the public
doesn't know much about what is said in those meetings. Last year, the
intelligence committee conducted 36 of its 40 meetings behind closed doors --
just four were open to the public, and none dealt with the issue of Iraq.
Allard, in his dialogues with CoCaMEP last year, implored the
public to trust his stance on Iraq because he has confidential, strategic
information.
"Sen. Allard doesn't listen to information from the
intelligence committee blindly," Conway said, adding that the senator wants
to see the weapons monitoring that ended amid controversy and skepticism in
1998, reinitiated.
"If he is convinced that Saddam Hussein is not developing
atomic or biological weapons of mass destruction, then he may support ending the
sanctions," Conway said. "Until strong evidence that such efforts have
been suspended, Sen. Allard doesn't believe he can lift the sanctions."
Conway added Allard supports ending sanctions if Hussein is overthrown.
Testimony to the Senate Committee on Armed Services, unlike
the intelligence committee, gives some indication to what points of view
persuade Allard.
For example, last September the armed services committee
listened to U.S. Ambassador Richard Butler, the former executive chair of the UN
Special Commission on Iraq who, in 1998, was responsible for monitoring Iraq's
disarmament. Iraqi officials claimed inspections were unfair and that the
country would never be able to comply with the demands of inspectors seeking
evidence that Iraq's missile capabilities were destroyed; that chemical weapons,
including mustard-gas shells, had been eliminated; and that biological weapons
were disposed.
The U.S. and Britain responded by launching Operation Desert
Fox, but in the continuing standoff, Iraq refuses to welcome back inspectors.
Butler told senators that weapons monitoring in Iraq should be
restored and a "new red line" should be drawn with UN Security Council
members, such as France and Russia, which both favor normalizing relations and
trade with Iraq.
Butler left the door open to ending sanctions as they exist
now. He said sanctions should be re-targeted to focus on the "financial
activities of the Iraqi leadership" and that the sanctions, in their
current state, are "ineffective."
"The Iraqi government has completely transferred their
effects to the Iraqi people and has built a lucrative black market," Butler
said.
Allard has also heard from Richard Perle, a fellow at the
conservative American Enterprise Institute, who also spoke to the armed services
committee.
Perle urged senators to support an uprising in Iraq,
ostensibly led by rebels or minorities, such as Shia Muslims or Kurds. The U.S.
should help with financing, organizing and training, Perle said, adding that
sanctions could be lifted on any territory violently liberated from Hussein's
control.
"It has a better chance, and is a more worthy contender,
than a new round of inconclusive air strikes or yet another abortive effort to
organize an anti-Saddam conspiracy among retired Iraqi generals," Perle
said.
Perle abandoned hope that any further weapons inspections
would bring the results Butler wants. He said it amounts to "hunting
needles in haystacks."
Trusting Allard is difficult for CoCaMEP members, like Dan
Winters, who on Tuesday will be leaving to visit Iraq as a part of a national
delegation that will violate the law by delivering some $80 million in medicine
to Iraqi hospitals.
In a letter to Winters, Allard said the "Food for
Oil" program is ruined by Hussein's tactics. Based on the testimony of Gen.
Anthony Zinni, commander of the U.S. forces in the Persian/Arabian Gulf region,
Allard worries that Saddam controls the distribution and storage of food and
goods.
Allard is concerned about "dual use" items, which
Iraq is prevented from importing because such items may be used in weapons. For
example, last month, U.S. officials said Sony PlayStation 2 consoles could be
used by Iraq to guide missiles.
Winters took issue with the dual use policy.
"It can get absurd," Winters said. "For
example, pencils are banned because they contain graphite, which, if you
gathered all the pencils in the world, might get you enough graphite to help
make a bomb."
Winters, an electronics professional, added the PlayStation 2
is no more threatening than a personal computer.
Stephanie Phibbs, who visited Iraq last year, said the
continuing U.S.-led aggression in the country, including the sanctions, creates
a moral dilemma where the average Iraqi becomes the target, not Hussein.
"The greatest tragedy here is the children who are
hurt," Phibbs said. "We are in danger of raising an entire generation
of Iraqis to distrust America. ... Anti-West propaganda thrives, and most of it
is right. We are those people that have hurt the defenseless -- who bomb
children. We can't escape moral culpability."
Phibbs visited a hospital while in Iraq. A child there had
picked up a bomb dropped by an allied fighter jet.
"(He) was completely blackened -- burnt by the
bomb," Phibbs said. "He was missing an arm. It was hard to look at
him."
But it's really the numbers that speak, Phibbs said. The UN
reports as many as 500,000 children since 1990 died as a result of the economic
sanctions.
Testimony by constituents like Phibbs for Allard comes with a
grain of salt. Phibbs received a "controlled story," Conway said.
"Movements are monitored," Conway said. He added
Iraq is attempting to "drum-up" public support for ending the
sanctions.
"We have to look skeptically at efforts that clearly are
aimed at a public relations campaign," Conway said. "I know the
conflict was only 10 years ago, but have we forgotten? We had a major military
conflict that involved the United States and all our allies."
The unfolding humanitarian crisis, however real, will have to
wait.
"It's terrible," Conway said. "Sen. Allard has a lot of empathy for the innocent victims that are (there). But he's got to look back and say, 'If we lift the sanctions, what's the other side of the coin here?'"
Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace
901 W. 14th Ave., #7 * Denver, CO 80204 * (303) 320-5994 * ccmep@hotmail.com*
www.ccmep.org
Press Release
For Immediate Release
Contact: Dan Winters, (303) 444-8405, dancwinters@yahoo.com
Stephanie Phibbs, (303) 320-5994, stephaniephibbs@hotmail.com
BOULDER ACTIVIST FLYING INTO BAGHDAD - VIOLATION OF SANCTIONS
HOLDING PRESS CONFERENCE PRIOR TO SENATOR ALLARD'S MEETING
Press Conference at 2:45pm, Monday, January 8th, in front of main entrance of Centura Health Senior Life Center, 1601 Lowell Blvd. Immediately following at 3:30pm, Dan Winters and other activists will question Senator Allard about the U.S. war against Iraq at the Senator's public town hall meeting inside the Senior Center.
(All are also invited to DIA when Dan leaves on Tuesday, Jan. 9th on United flight 412 departing for New York/La Guardia at 11:30 AM. He will be at the departure gate at 10:45.)
Dan Winters, a Boulder activist, will be on board the 1st U.S. direct flight into Iraq. This is in direct violation of the U.S./ UN sanctions. Immediately after the press conference, Winters and other area activists will attend the Town Hall meeting of Senator Wayne Allard (Allard's meeting will be held in the same location.) Allard will be questioned on why he supports economic sanctions that have killed over 500,000 Iraqi children. Winters leaves for Iraq the next day.
10 years ago Winters was in Iraq as part of the Int'l Gulf Peace Team to protest the impending war. He was scheduled to leave Baghdad for the U.S. at 6:00 AM on January 17, 1991. Ninety minutes prior to his departure for the airport the airport ceased to exist - the air war had started. Winters spent the next seven days in Baghdad, with allied bombs raining down. His return is almost ten years to the day of his arrival in Baghdad in 1991.
Leaving Denver January 9th Winters will fly to New York to join an international delegation headed by Ramsey Clark, the former United States Attorney General under LBJ. Ramsey has made a number of trips to Iraq and is an outspoken critic of the sanctions. The purpose of the trip is to bring medical aid to Iraq in violation of the sanctions and to highlight the inhumanity of the sanctions. Winters said " the sanctions have caused great harm to the ordinary people of Iraq, people of good conscience must stand together to stop this violation of human rights". The group will also visit Palestinian refugee camps.
Trip is in Violation of U.S. Law
In August of 1990, the U.S. crafted a law making it illegal for U.S. citizens to travel to Iraq. Since 1996 there have been dozens of U.S. peace delegations to Iraq; in 1998, one delegation with Chicago-based Voices in the Wilderness was fined over $160,000 though the U.S. has avoided prosecuting the group. Since October of 2000, over a dozen countries have flown directly into Baghdad, the U.S. government maintaining such flights are a breach of the sanctions against Iraq. Over the past 13 months there have been three Colorado delegations to Iraq: Colorado Springs, Nov. '99; Denver , Jan. '00; Denver, May '00. Dan is a member of the Rocky Mtn. Peace & Justice Center and of the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace.
BIO Dan C. Winters, 1181 Quince Ave., Boulder, CO 80304
(303) 444-8405 dancwinters@yahoo.com
Winters has been active on peace and justice issues for many years. When Martin Luther King spoke out against the Vietnam War he became an active opponent of the war. He worked on Ceasar Chavezs' grape and lettuce boycotts of the 60's and 70's; and with the Orange County Human Rights Commission when they investigated allegations of police brutality.
As per above he was with the Gulf Peace Team, in Iraq, when
the war started in 1991.
In 1993 he joined a 2,000 strong peace group, Mir Sada, going to Sarajevo,
Bosnia to interpose themselves between the Muslims and the Serbs. He returned to
Bosnia in 1995 under a George Soros grant to help establish links between the
Croatian and Muslim communities in Mostar, Bosnia.
Dan was an official United Nations observer for the independence elections held
in East Timor in August 1999. He returned to East and West Timor in April 2000
to report on conditions in East Timor and the refugee situation in West Timor.
Dan has worked in the computer field since 1964 and has an MBA in Computer Methodology from the City University of New York. He has worked in industry and has taught Computer Science courses at colleges and universities. Dan lives in Boulder with Sheila his wife of 38 years. They have 3 children and 3 grandchildren.
International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, NY, NY 10011
212-633-6646 fax: 212-633-2889
iacenter@iacenter.org http://www.iacenter.org
Founder Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General
January 4, 2001
For Immediate release
Press Contact: Deirdre Sinnott
212-633-6646
RAMSEY CLARK'S SANCTIONS CHALLENGE IV:
DELEGATION SET TO DEFY U.S. POLICY ARRIVES IN AMMAN ON THE WAY TO BAGHDAD, SAT.
JANUARY 13, 2001
Defying U.S./UN sanctions, a group of over 50 delegates led by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark will depart from the United States for the Middle East on Jan. 12 and leave from Amman, Jordan to Baghdad, Iraq on Jan. 13. The delegation from the U.S. plans to arrive in Iraq to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the U.S.-led Gulf War.
This is the fourth Iraq Sanctions Challenge by Clark's International Action Center. The 50 delegates include anti-war and anti-sanctions activists, educators, students and members of religious groups. They will defy U.S./UN imposed sanctions by taking supplies to Iraq without licence.
More than 1 million Iraqi people, mostly children and seniors, have died as a result of 10 years of U.S./UN sanctions.
The delegates plan to fly on Royal Jordanian Airlines directly
to Baghdad. In recent months people from many countries, including UN Security
Council countries Russia, Britain and France, Spain, Greece and many Middle East
nations, have defied the U.S./British illegal ban on
flights to Iraq.
Clark is known throughout the U.S. and the Middle East for his round-breaking work in the last 10 years of fighting the sanctions against Iraq and for his overall solidarity with Middle Eastern people against oppression from the U.S.
After visiting Iraq, delegates plan to visit a Palestinian refugee camp in Amman, Jordan and then deliver medicines to the West Bank in solidarity with the uprising against Israeli occupation. The trip is sponsored by the International Action Center.
"We know that the amount of humanitarian aid we bring cannot truly meet the needs of the Iraqi people," said delegate Sara Flounders, a co-director of the IAC. "Only ending the sanctions and allowing Iraq to resume normal trade relations can bring an end to the country's catastrophic economic situation.
"On Dec. 20, in one of his first statements as George W. Bush's secretary of state nominee, Gen. Colin Powell threatened tighter sanctions and increased aggression against Iraq. Powell headed the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Bush's father and commanded U.S. forces during the 1991 Gulf War.
"This demonstrates the great urgency for anti-war and anti-sanctions forces to stand up and mobilize right now," Flounders commented. "We must send a strong message to the incoming Bush administration that we won't tolerate further aggression against the Iraqi people.
"Jan. 16-17 is the tenth anniversary of the start of one of the worst massacres in history," Flounders continued. "More than 100,000 Iraqis were killed while the United States lost about 141 personnel in the Gulf War. The U.S. used an integrated strategy of massive bombing, more than 110,000 aerial sorties in 42 days, and tight economic sanctions in an effort to permanently weaken Iraq. Washington's goal has always been to return Iraq to semi-colonial bondage so that U.S. oil companies and banks can dominate its vast oil resources."
Flounders said that the IAC is urging anti-sanctions activists to turn out en masse for the Jan. 20 counter-inaugural protest in Washington with signs and banners demanding an end to sanctions and to all U.S. aggression.
Groups participating in the Iraq Sanctions Challenge include
International Peace Project, Fellowship of Reconsilation, Student for Unity
Portland State University, Veterans for Peace, Shifa International, Committee in
Support of the Iraqi People, Fight Israeli State Terrorism (FIST), American
Muslims for Global Peace & Justice, Canadian Islamic Congress, Al Awda, Bard
Student Action Collective, Northhampton Committee to Lift the Sanctions, Staten
Island College Voice, Pax Christi, Arab Cultural, Assoication of Japan, Rocky
Mountain Peace & Justice Center and the American Muslim Council. Almost half
the delegates are students and
educators representing colleges and universities across the U.S.
For updates on the Iraq Sanctions Challenge or for information on planned protests, visit the Web site www.iacenter.org or call (212) 633-6646.
International Action Center 39 West 14th Street, Room 206 New
York, NY 10011
email: iacenter@iacenter.org web: http://www.iacenter.org CHECK OUT SITE
http://www.mumia2000.org phone: 212 633-6646 fax: 212 633-2889 *To make a
tax-deductible donation, go to http://www.peoplesrightsfund.org
Date this page was last updated: 12/28/01