From: "Siddharth Chatterjee" <siddhart-AT-mailbox.syr.edu>
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 23:53:23 +0000
Subject: M-I: Fwd: Banning child sacrifice: A difficult choice?



Below is an eyewitness horrifying account of modern-day child mass 
murder - perpetrated through the UN. The account is by Kathy Kelly 
from Voices in Wilderness.

-------------
Original Text
From: "Romi Mahajan" <romimahajan-AT-mail.utexas.edu>, on 3/11/98 7:05 PM:
To: 
Cc: 

>X-Sender: zeynept-AT-mail.utexas.edu
>Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 05:01:20 -0600
>To: rjensen-AT-uts.cc.utexas.edu (Robert Jensen), romimahajan-AT-mail.utexas.edu,
>        rahul-AT-peaches.ph.utexas.edu
>From: Zeynep <zeynept-AT-mail.utexas.edu>
>Subject: Fwd: Banning child sacrifice: A difficult choice?
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>
>Dear Friends,  Please feel free to make use of this article, or an part of
>it that you think would be appropriate for further circulation.  Thanks,
>Kathy Kelly
>
>Banning Child Sacrifice:  A Difficult Choice?
>
>by Kathy Kelly  March 9, 1998

Below is a first-hand horrifying account of modern human child 
sacrifice  - perpetrated through the UN.

--------------------------------------------------------
>Just one month ago, US/ UK bombardment of Iraq seemed almost inevitable.  
Even
>though the most comprehensive economic sanctions ever inflicted in modern
>history have
>already crippled Iraq, slaughtering over 1/2 million children under age 5,
>the US and the UK  were poised for  further assault. Today, the US still
>threatens air attacks upon Iraq, massive strikes that would heap more 
agony
>on civilians who've endured a seven year state of siege.
>
>On February 9, our small delegation of eight, two from the United Kingdom
>and six from
>the US, representing thousands of supporters, traveled to Iraq carrying
>110,000 dollars of medicines.  We were the 11th Voices in the Wilderness
>delegation to deliberately violate the sanctions as part of a nonviolent
>campaign to end the US led economic warfare against Iraq.
>
>>From previous trips, we knew exactly where to find overwhelming evidence 
of
>a weapon
>of mass destruction. Inspectors have only to enter the wards of any 
hospital
>in Iraq to see that the sanctions themselves are a lethal weapon, 
destroying
>the lives of Iraq's most vulnerable people.  In children's wards, tiny
>victims writhe in pain, on blood-stained mats, bereft of anesthetics and
>antibiotics. Thousands of  children, poisoned by contaminated water, die
>from dysentery, cholera, and diahhreah.  Others succumb to respiratory
>infections that become fatal full body infections.   Five thousand
>children, under age five, perish each month.   960,000 children  who are
>severely malnourished will bear lifelong consequences of stunted growth,
>brain deficiencies, disablement.  At the hands of UN/US policy makers,
>childhood in Iraq has, for thousands, become a living hell.
>
>Repeatedly, the US media describes Iraq's plight as "hardship."  Video
>footage and still photographs show professors selling their valuable 
books.
>Teenage students hawking jewelry in the market are interviewed about why
>they aren't in school.   These are sad stories, but they distract us from
>the major crisis in Iraq today, the story still shrouded in secrecy.  This
>is the story of  extreme cruelty, a story of medicines being withheld from
>dying children.  It is a story of child abuse, of child sacrifice, and it
>merits day to day coverage.
>
>A Reuters TV crew accompanied our delegation to Al Mansour children's
>hospital.  On
>the general ward, the day before, I had met a mother crouching over an
>infant , named
>Zayna.  The child was so emaciated by nutritional marasmus that, at 7 
months
>of age, her frail body seemed comparable to that of a 7 month premature
>fetus.   We felt awkward about returning with a TV crew, but the camera
>person, a  kindly man,  was clearly moved by all that he'd seen in the
>previous wards.  He made eye contact with the mother.  No words were 
spoken,
>yet she gestured to me to sit on a chair next to the bed, then wrapped 
Zayna
>in a worn, damp and stained covering.  Gently, she raised the dying child
>and put her in my arms. Was the mother trying to say,  as she nodded to me,
>that if the world could witness what had been done to tiny Zayna, she 
might
>not die in vain?    Inwardly crumpling, I turned to the camera, stammering,
>"This child, denied food and denied medicine, is the embargo's victim."
>
>I felt ashamed of my own health and well-being, ashamed to be so 
comfortably
>adjusted to the  privileged life of a culture that, however unwittingly,
>practices child sacrifice.  Many of us westerners can live well, continue
>"having it all," if we only agree to avert our gaze, to look the other way,
>to politely not notice that in order to maintain our overconsumptive
>lifestyles,  our political leaders tolerate child sacrifice. "It's a
>difficult choice to make," said Madeleine Albright when she was asked 
about
>the fact that more children had died in Iraq than in Hiroshima and 
Nagasaki
>combined, "but," she continued, "we think the price is worth it." Iraqi 
oil
>must be kept off the markets, at all costs, even if sanctions cost the 
lives
>of  hundreds of thousands of children.  The camera man had moved on.   
"I'm
>sorry,
>Zayna, " I whispered helplessly to the mother and child. "I'm so sorry."
>
>Camera crews accompanied us to hospitals in Baghdad, Basra and Fallujah.
>They filmed
>the horrid conditions inside grim wards.  They filmed a cardiac surgeon 
near
>tears telling  how it feels to decide which of three patients will get the
>one available ampule of heart medicine .  "Yesterday," said Dr. Faisal,  a
>cardiac surgeon at the Fallujah General Hospital,  "I shouted at my nurse.
>I said, 'I told you to give that ampule to this patient. The other two 
will
>have to die.'"    A camera crew followed us into the general ward of  a
>children's hospital when a mother began to sob convulsively because her 
baby
>had just suffered a cardiac arrest.  Dr. Qusay, the chief of staff, rushed
>to resuscitate the child, then whispered to the mother that they had no
>oxygen , that the baby was gasping her dying breaths.  All of the mothers,
>cradling their desperately ill infants, began to weep.  The ward was a 
death
>row for infants.
>
>Associated Press,  Reuters and other news companies' footage from hospital
>visits was
>broadcast in the Netherlands, in Britain, in Spain and in France.  But
>people in the US never glimpsed those hospital wards.
>
>I  asked a cameraman from a major US news network why he came to the
>entrance of a
>hospital to film us, but  opted not to enter the hospital.  "Please," I
>begged, "we didn't ask you to film us as talking heads. The story is 
inside
>the hospital."  He shrugged.  "Both sides use the children suffering," he
>explained, "and we've already done hospitals."   I might have added that
>they'd already "done" F 16's lifting off of runways, they'd "done" white 
UN
>vehicles driving off to inspect possible weapon sites, they'd "done"
>innumerable commercials for US weapon displays.
>
>While political games are  played, the children are dying and we have seen
>them die.  If people across the US could see what we've seen, if they
>witnessed, daily, the crisis of child sacrifice and child slaughter, we
>believe hearts would be touched.  Sanctions would not withstand the light 
of
>day.
>
>I felt sad  and shattered as we left Iraq.  A peaceful resolution to the
>weapons inspection crisis was reached, at least temporarily,  but Iraqi
>friends were intensely skeptical.  "They are going to hit us.  This is
>sure," said Samir, a young computer engineer.  "Anyway, look what happens 
to
>us every day."  Feeling helpless to notify anyone, we had left the scene 
of
>an ongoing crime.
>
>Upon return to the US,  customs agents turned my passport over to the 
state
>department, perhaps as evidence that according to US law I've committed a
>criminal act by traveling to Iraq.  I know that our efforts to be voices 
in
>the wilderness aren't criminal.   We're governed by compassion, not by 
laws
>that pitilessly murder innocent children.  What's more,   Iraqi children
>might benefit if we could bring their story into a courtroom, before a 
jury
>of our peers.
>
>We may be tempted to feel pessimistic, but Iraq's children can ill afford
>our despair. They need us to build on last month's resistance to military
>strikes.    During the Gulf War, I wasn't in the US  (I was with the Gulf
>Peace Team, camped on the border between Saudi Arabia and Iraq and later
>evacuated to Baghdad). I didn't witness, firsthand, the war fever and war
>hysteria. But people told me, when I returned to the US, that the war had
>often seemed like a sporting event.  Some people went to bars, raised mugs
>of beer and cheered when "smart bombs" exploded on their targets. "Rock
>Iraq! Slam Saddam! Say Hello to Allah!" they shouted.
>
>I think of Umm Reyda when I hear those accounts, a mother who lost nine of
>her family
>members when, on February 12, 1991, two astonishingly smart bombs blasted 
the
>Ameriyah community center.  Families in the Ameriyah neighborhood had
>gathered to
>commemorate the end of Ramadan.  They had invited many refugees to join 
them
>and had
>made extra room in the overnight basement shelter so that all could huddle
>together for a relatively safe night's sleep.  The smart bombs penetrated
>the "achilles heel" of the building, the spot where ventilation shafts had
>been installed.  The first bomb exploded and forced 17 bodies out of the
>building.  The second bomb followed immediately after the first, and when 
it
>exploded the exits were sealed off.  The temperature inside rose to 500
>degrees centigrade and the pipes overhead burst with boiling water which
>cascaded down on the innocents who slept.  Hundreds of people were melted.
>Umm Reyda greets each of our delegations, just as she greeted me when I
>first met her in March, 1991.    "We know that you are not your government,
"
>she says, "and that  your people would never choose to do this to us."  
I've
>always felt relief that she never saw television coverage of US people in
>bars, cheering her children's death.
>
>Last month, on February 18, 1998, a vastly different cry was shouted by
>college students.  They didn't cheer the bombers, and in Columbus, OH they
>may well have prevented them from deadly missions.  "One two three four, 
we
>don't want your racist war."  The lines confronted Ms. Albright, crackled
>across Baghdad.  People on the streets smiled at me, an obvious westerner,
>and counted, "one, two three four..."
>
>A week later, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, at the conclusion of his
>remarks
>introducing a peaceful resolution to the weapon inspection crisis, urged
>young people
>around the world to recognize that we are all part of one another, to see
>the world not from the narrow perspective of their own locale but rather
>from a clear awareness of our fundamental interdependence.  What a 
contrast
>between his vision of a
>new generation that wants to share this planet's resources and serve one
>another's best interests, globally, and the vision that Ms. Albright 
offers:
>"If we have to use force, it is because we are America.  We are the
>indispensable nation.  We stand tall. We see further into the future."
>
>Ms. Albright's reference to "use of force" is the stuff of nightmares ,
>given the ominous comments some US military officials have made about
>preparedness to use even nuclear force.
>
>I doubt that other nations will accept that the US "stands tall."  It's 
more
>likely that international consensus will conclude that the US lacks the
>moral standing to be
>prosecutor, judge, and jury in the dispute over Iraq's policies.  Most
>people in the Arab world believe that the US favors Israel and is 
unwilling
>to criticize its actions, even when they violate international agreements 
or
>United Nations resolutions.  People throughout the world point to the
>hypocrisy of the government of the US in other aspects of international
>relations.  The US is over $1 billion in arrears in payments to the United
>Nations; it has ignored judgments by the World Court and overwhelming 
votes
>in the UN General Assembly whenever they conflict with its desires; and
>despite its rhetoric about human rights, the US record of support for
>ruthless regimes is shameful.
>
>Is it outlandish to think that courage, wisdom and love could inform the
>formation of
>foreign and domestic policies? Is it overly optimistic to think that we
>could choose to ban the sale of weapons of mass destruction? Is it too 
much
>to ask that economic sanctions against Iraq be lifted and never again used
>as a form of child sacrifice?   For the sake of all children, everywhere,
>lets continue sounding a wake up call to US officials.  They must stop
>punishing and murdering Iraqi children.  The agreement negotiated by UN
>Secretary General Kofi Annan offers a basis for continued weapon 
inspections
>and the earliest possible end to the deadly embargo of trade with Iraq.  
The
>deeds of one leader, or even of an entire government, cannot be used to
>justify an unprecedented violation of human rights.  Umm Reyda, through
>seven years of mourning, still forgives US people.  It's time that we
>respond with remorse and regret  for the suffering we've caused and a
>commitment to end this racist war.
>
>Kathy Kelly
>Voices in the Wilderness
>1460 West Carmen
>Chicago, IL  60640
>tel. 773-784-8065
>
>Kathy Kelly helps co-ordinate Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end
>the UN/US
>sanctions against Iraq.  The campaign, which began in January, 1996, has 
sent
>11
>delegations to Iraq and is planning two more delegations for early spring,
>1998.  Members have been warned that they face 12 years in prison, one
>million dollars in fines and a $250,000 administrative penalty if they
>persist in their efforts to publicly violate the UN/US sanctions against
>Iraq.  Members of the campaign are committed to non-violent resistance to
>injustice and oppose the development, storage, sale and use of all weapons
>of mass destruction, including economic sanctions imposed on innocent
>civilians.
>Voices in the Wildernss
>A Campaign to End the US/UN Economic Sanctions Against the People of Iraq
>1460 West Carmen Ave.
>Chicago, IL 60640
>ph:773-784-8065; f: 773-784-8837
>email: kkelly-AT-igc.apc.org
>





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