Jan.-Feb. 2003:
Activist Editorial
No Dollars for Burma Dictators
U.S. Ducks International Justice
A Summer in Palestine
Philip Berrigan, 1923-2002
Anti-War Posters
Letters
Activist News
WRL News
Activist Reviews

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War Resisters League
The Nonviolent Activist

A Letter from Baghdad

Warm greetings to you from Baghdad as the weather grows cold here. …Here the fear of war and anxiousness is growing. People are afraid. More than fear, I find myself fighting a deep sadness and despair over the situation. A constant sense of disbelief that this could possibly be happening.

Now he is beginning to stutter again. He is 17.

Saad’s whole family (brothers and sisters) have left Iraq. But he says he will never leave. He will stay and teach the students, giving them all that he can. He said at one point, looking directly at me, “The last time it (the war) was terrible, but this time it will be the end. I have no doubt that we will all be killed.” He was not seeking sympathy, only stating what he believed.

I told you about Ammar, the young man who works behind the desk downstairs. That he lives next door to the Ameriya shelter where about 500 people were incinerated by two U.S. missiles in 1991 after they fled there seeking safety. He told us that he had seen the bodies, that he had been 11 years old at the time. The other day he told me that his wife is six months pregnant, expecting their first baby. He said that he is afraid for her and the coming baby.

It is just unimaginable to me that we are intending to go to war against these dear people. We are mad. A Russian reporter asked me on Christmas Eve outside the church where I’d gone to attend mass, “Are you afraid? What if the bombs come?” You know what I fear more than the bombs?, I thought later that night. I fear for the soul of my nation. … I don’t want to be in the country that is dropping the bombs. God help us. I am so distraught.

—Cathy Breen, December 31, 2002

Cathy Breen left for Baghdad with a Voices in the Wilderness delegation in October of last year. The U.S. treasury is still attempting to get $50,000 in fines from Voices in the Wilderness and some of its individual members for humanitarian and medical aid brought to Iraq in 2002 (see NVA, July-August 2002); for more information, see www.vitw.org.

Peacemaker Killed in Iraq Accident

Canadian George Weber, 73, of Chesley, ON, was killed instantly in a January 6 motor accident north of Basrah, Iraq, while traveling with a Christian Peacemaker Team delegation. Charlie Jackson, 43, of San Antonio, TX, and Michele Naar-Obed, 46, of Duluth, MN, sustained moderate injuries in the crash. Two others had minor injuries.

Weber was one of six CPT delegates traveling in a Chevrolet Suburban as part of a three-vehicle caravan returning to Baghdad from Basrah. The left rear tire blew out, causing the car to fishtail. The driver tried to stabilize the vehicle, but it hit the shoulder of the road, flipped over and rolled to a stop upside down beside the road. Weber sustained massive head injuries when he was thrown from the vehicle.

Iraqi passers-by and CPT delegates from the other two cars witnessed the crash and immediately came to help. The delegation returned to Basrah, where the victims were examined and treated at a local hospital.

Weber was a retired history teacher and trained Christian Peacemaker Teams reservist. He served in 2001 and 2002 with the CPT team in Hebron in the West Bank of Palestine, where he took a particular interest in accompanying Palestinian children to school. With his wife Lena, he had also spent three years teaching school in Nigeria in the 1960s.

The 17-person delegation had been in Iraq since December 29, visiting hospitals and other Iraqi civilian institutions to witness firsthand the devastating impact of 13 years of U.N.-administered sanctions, the Gulf War and the threat of another war on the Iraqi people. Delegation members said that, while in Iraq, Weber had been most deeply touched by the children he saw suffering from radiation-related cancers and the lack of medications because of the sanctions.

—Claire Evans
Christian Peacemaker Teams

Christian Peacemaker Teams received the 2002 War Resisters League Peace Award (see NVA, May-June 2002). For more information, you can reach CPT at P.O. Box 6508, Chicago, IL 60680; (773)277-0253; fax, (773)277-0291;www.prairienet.org/cpt.

Israeli Refuseniks in Prison Again

Several refuseniks were imprisoned in Israel in the fall of 2002, with most of them serving repeated prison sentences.

October found Jonathan Ben-Artzi and Uri Ya’akobi already incarcerated (see http://swri-irg.org/news/htdocs/14112002a.html). That month, Haggai Matar was sentenced to 14 days in prison and then, in November, to another 28.

Matar is one of the founders of the “Shministim” movement, the movement of high school students who declare their refusal to serve in the Occupied Territories. This year’s “Seniors’ letter” (see http://oznik.com/petitions/020917.html) was signed by more than 210 high school students.

Two more refuseniks were imprisoned in November. Yoni Yechezkel received his fourth prison term, bringing the total up to 84 days, and Dror Broimel also received a fourth sentence, bringing his total prison time up to 91 days. Yechezkel is probably held in Military Prison No. 6; Broimel is probably held in Military Prison No. 4.

War Resisters’ International calls for letters of support to all imprisoned conscientious objectors. You can write to Jonathan Ben-Artzi, Uri Ya’akobi, Dror Broimel and Haggai Matar at Military Prison No. 4, Military Postal Code 02507, IDF, Israel; and to Yoni Yechezkel at Military Prison No. 6, Military Postal Code 01860, IDF, Israel.

War Resisters’ International also calls for protest letters to the Israeli authorities and Israeli embassies abroad demanding the immediate release of all imprisoned conscientious objectors. Write to Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Minister of Defense, Ministry of Defense, 37 Kaplan St., Tel Aviv 61909, Israel; or fax 972-3-696-27-57; or e-mail sar@mod.gov.il or pniot@mod.gov.

—Andreas Speck War Resisters’ International

800 Call For Conscientious Objection

In light of the mobilization of the British Armed Forces, War Resisters’ International put out a renewed call for conscientious objection in January.

While the British Minister of Defense, Geoff Hoon, announced the mobilization of British Armed Forces for the war on Iraq, including the call-up of 1,500 reservists, a statement by War Resisters’ International, signed by more than 800 people from all over the world, said:

“War Resisters’ International urges all soldiers—in whichever forces they are supposed to fight: Follow your conscience and refuse to take part, apply for conscientious objector status, refuse orders, desert, say No!

“All those involved in preparations for war, in administration or in arms factories: Refuse to do so, Say No!

“Journalists and the media asked to promote war: Refuse to do so, insist on writing and broadcasting the uncensored truth, Say No!

“All those who pay tax: Demand that your taxes are used for peace, withhold the proportion of tax used for war, Say No!

“[WRI] members and everyone: Support those refusing to participate in war and preparations for war, get involved in direct nonviolent resistance against war!”

War Resisters’ International urges members of any armed forces not to make any decision without thinking through the consequences. For help, consult the appropriate counseling services—members of the U.S. armed forces can call the GI Rights Hotline, (800)394-9544, or e-mail girights@objector.org; for information about other countries, get in touch with local WRI affiliates (see www.wri-irg.org/cgi/datafeed.cgi).

For the full text of WRI’s “say no” statement, see www.wri-irg.org/statemnt/sayno.htm; for further information, call Andreas Speck at WRI, (+44)20-7278 4040; write War Resisters’ International, 5 Caledonian Rd., London N1 9DX, Britain; or e-mail info@wri-irg.org.

—WRI

CIA Torture Tactics Shock Washington Post

In what a Washington Post editorial described as “an eye-opening story,” Post reporters Dana Priest and Barton Gellman broke the news in December that CIA interrogators were torturing captive al Quaeda and Taliban fighters.

Although one unnamed U.S. official told Priest and Gellman, “We don’t kick the [expletive] out of [the prisoners], we send them to other countries so they can kick the [expletive] out of them,” the reporters concluded that CIA agents as well as those of other countries were withholding pain medication from some injured captives and beating others, depriving them of sleep and threatening to turn them over to “brutal foreign intelligence services.”

The Post editorial, titled “Torture Is Not an Option,” allowed that questioning foreign suspects might not be “governed by the same rules that govern domestic criminal investigations.” But whatever rules might be different, the paper said, “there are certain things democracies don’t do, even under duress, and torture is high on the list.” Therefore, urged the Post, the Bush administration should go public about what it’s doing with captives so that the U.S. people can either agree that torture is now permissible or demand that the government ban it.

10,000 Points of Light at SOA

In a related story, more than 10,000 people went to Ft. Benning, GA, last November 17 to urge the U.S. government to close its infamous “School of Assassins” there. Nearly 100 of them actually entered the base, risking arrest and prison. In the words of one activist, absent from the Ft. Benning action because he was in jail for participating in the 2001 protest there, “Bush said we must uproot every known terrorist training camp. We’re shining a light on one that’s operating … in our back yard.”

Unlike the Washington Post, U.S. activists have long known that this country’s covert forces practice and encourage torture, with the School of the Americas—now re-named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation—among the most notorious agencies for promoting such practices. The annual gathering at Ft. Benning, organized by the Washington-based School of the Americas Watch, marks the anniversary of the 1989 assassination of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador by SOA graduates.

The December 2000 renaming of the SOA was widely viewed as an attempt to diffuse criticism and disassociate the school from its reputation, but graduates of the school continue to be implicated in acts designed to terrorize and coerce civilian populations throughout Latin America. SOA Watch maintains that the underlying purpose of the school, to control the economic and political systems of Latin America by training and influencing Latin American militaries, remains the same.

The 2002 SOA protest took place during the weekend of November 16-17. It was the largest gathering yet to demand the closing of the SOA/WHISC; organizers attributed the record-breaking attendance to growing criticism of the war on terrorism, coupled with concern over turmoil in Latin America in the past year involving SOA grads (e.g., the failed coup in Venezuela and the deteriorating human rights situation in Colombia).

The weekend featured speakers and musicians from North and Latin America, including the Indigo Girls. On November 17, at least 96 people negotiated a 10-foot barbed-wire fence to enter the base. Twenty-six people are currently serving three- and six-month prison sentences for peacefully crossing onto the base during last November’s convergence.

“The SOA is part of a corporate- hijacked foreign policy that’s making us a lot of enemies,” said Fr. Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOA Watch. “If we want lasting peace and security we need a foreign policy that reflects our values of justice, democracy and dignity.”

For more information, get in touch with Matthew Smucker at School of the Americas Watch, (202)903-7257 or media@ soaw.org; or see www.soaw.org.

—SOA Watch

Resistance in the Desert …

Some 200 people (including several from War Resisters League-West) spent five days in the Nevada desert last October 11-14 at the semi-annual Nevada Test Site gathering for peace and nuclear abolition. The event was organized by the Las Vegas-based antinuclear Shundahai Network and hosted by the Western Shoshone people, upon whose native land it took place.

The land has been confiscated by Department of Energy to test nuclear weapons, to the extreme detriment of the earth and its people. Shoshone Nation members have reported increased radiation levels in their water and skyrocketing cancer and lung disease rates among their people, in addition to a decline in the plant and animal diversity that once flourished in the area. The government has also recently approved beginning to dump tremendous amounts of nuclear waste into nearby Yucca Mountain.

Immediately preceding the gathering, many participants walked 65 miles from Las Vegas to the Peace Encampment at the gates of the test site. All who entered the camp were asked to sign a pledge of nonviolence and then proceeded to enjoy wonderful communal meals and the beautiful desert environment together.

The gathering proper included workshops and educational and nonviolence trainings, along with daily sunrise and sweat lodge ceremonies led by Shoshone elders. There was a rally on Saturday in honor of Indigenous People’s Day, which included nonviolent direct action at the gates of the test site. Dozens crossed the line there, and dozens more formed affinity groups and took part in back country actions to protest the government’s action on the land. Many were taken into jail in nearby Beatty and Tonopah, but all were released within a day or two.

The event concluded with a final sunrise ceremony, performed on U.S. Department of Energy test site land in a spirit of peace and solidarity with the Earth, that was both a pledge of resistance and a celebration of reclaiming the land for the indigenous people. For more information, see www. shundahai.org.

—Elizabeth Griswold WRL West

… And Among the Redwoods

One evening last fall in the small town of Arcata, CA, concerned Humboldt County citizens crowded the corner of 9th and H Streets on the Arcata Plaza near Humboldt State University to raise awareness about international violence. Cars drove by and honked in support of signs with peaceful messages while demonstrators cheered.

Organized by the nearby Redwood Peace and Justice Center, the protests have been going on for more than a year. Demonstrators meet at the Center every Friday shortly before 5 p.m. to gather signs and fliers before walking down to the plaza. Redwood Center representative Waylen Brucker says that the Bush administration plan to attack Iraq has increased the amount of participants significantly.

On that particular fall evening, Willow Rain, a 55-year-old Arcata resident, said she was not protesting. “It’s not a protest, so much as it is saying, ‘Hey folks, it’s time to think,’” she explained, brandishing a sign quoting President John F. Kennedy’s declaration that humanity “must put an end to war, or war will put an end to [humanity].”

There were many signs expressing the participants’ opinions, with messages including “War is Terrorism,” “Stop Israeli Terrorism,” “Violence Begets Violence,” “No War,” and “If You’re Not Outraged, You’re Not Paying Attention.”

At 6 p.m. the demonstrators began marching through the streets of downtown Arcata. At one point the group was taking up both lanes of the one-way G Street while chanting “Don’t Attack Iraq.” A northbound car waited for them to move, then honked support. The demonstration was free of serious attention from law-enforcement officials.

For more information or to get involved with peace movements on the North Coast of California, call the Redwood Peace and Justice Center at (707)826-2511 or see www.rpjc.net.

—William Kelvin

School to Honor Rustin

A Philadelphia-area school board decided in January to name a new district high school after antiwar and civil rights leader Bayard Rustin (1912-1987). The West Chester [PA] School District came to its decision in the face of considerable opposition generated by Rustin’s left politics, his homosexuality and his WWII status as a conscientious objector.

Rustin’s pacifism was one of the influences that drew Martin Luther King Jr. to Gandhian nonviolence in the late 1950s; he was also the lead organizer of the August 1963 civil rights protest that drew a quarter of a million people to Washington, DC, where King delivered the best-known U.S. speech since the Gettysburg Address. While organizing the march, Rustin was on leave from his job as Executive Secretary of the War Resisters League.

Rustin grew up in West Chester and is widely considered the most famous alumnus of an older local high school; a documentary broadcast this January on public television stations across the country celebrates his life and achievements. The West Chester District decided last year to name the new high school after him, then reconsidered its decision in light of protests from those in the community who opposed it on the grounds of either Rustin’s lifestyle or his youthful membership in the Communist Party. In the emotion-filled January meeting, two-thirds of the board voted that Rustin’s contributions to the nation outweighed those factors.