Ten Arrested at US Mission to the UN Protesting Sanctions of Iraq
For Immediate Release, New York City-Wednesday, August 22, 2001, 11:00a.m.
Voices in the Wilderness
773-784-8065
kkelly@igc.apc.org
1460 W. Carmen Ave
Chicago, Il 60640
Ten members of Voices in the Wilderness have just been arrested after bringing a symbolic meal of lentils and rice to the steps of the US Mission to the UN, inviting members of the staff and the Ambassador's office to share the meal across from the US Mission to the UN, (45th Street and First Avenue).
Members of the group are on the seventeenth day of a 40 day fast calling for
an end to sanctions against Iraq. Last week, the NYPD arrested twelve people for
approaching the steps of the US Mission with their
meal and their message. Charged with obstruction and criminal trespass, they
face trial on September 20.
Fasters returned today to continue bringing their message to the US Mission,
some of them having recently
traveled to Iraq, in direct violation of US law and the 11 year embargo. Among
them , Kathy Kelly, nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, states,
"We are trying to encourage the member states of
the UN to 'break ranks' with the US in its insistence on endless sanctions for
Iraq. We also ask for the US to seek reconciliation with the peoples of Iraq, to
stop the continued bombing and terror, and to embrace peaceful means to solve
any conflict between the two nations."
Those arrested are Ceylon Mooney, Memphis, TN, Kathy Kelly, Chicago, IL, MikiLu Peters, Chicago, IL, Nate Peters, Chicago, IL, Rev. Jerry Zawada, OFM, Hammond, IN, Peter De Mott, Ithaca, NY,; Athir Shayota, Harlem, NY, Ed Lewinson, New Jersey, Felton Davis, New York, NY, Cynthia Banas, Vernon, NY.
In an August 20, 2001 letter of invitation to the US Mission to the UN, the group wrote: We are again inviting you to partake with us in a simple meal of cooked lentils, rice, and bread, along with unpurified water, (we don't want to drink it and neither do Iraqi people). The meal symbolizes our concern because many Iraqis have subsisted on this food for eleven years. It also represents our earnest interest in breaking bread with you.
We'd like to discuss the perspective of Mr.Hubert Vedrine, the French Foreign
Minister, who stated: "Economic sanctions on Iraq are "cruel,
ineffective and dangerous: they are cruel because they punish
exclusively Iraqi people and the weakest among them. They are ineffective
because they don't touch the regime which is not encouraged to cooperate and
they are dangerous because they…accentuate the
disintegration of Iraqi society." (Hubert Vedrine, August 2, 2000, Reuters)
Several of us have seen and heard, first hand, evidence of the disintegration
Mr.Vedrine deplores. We mean you no harm or inconvenience in wanting to talk
with you. And of course we are easily
available as we vigil outside your building each day.
For more information, call the Breaking Ranks cell phone numbers or contact the Chicago office (above)