End the Sanctions
-Voices in the Wilderness and others arrested for actions to end the silent slaughter of the Iraqi people.

Voices in the Wilderness and allied groups working to end the sanctions and other warfare against Iraq continue to press their campaigns of nonviolent direct action. Some of these creative actions have resulted in arrests.

After 30 days of fasting in Washington, D.C., and other locations around the country, and a meeting with State Department apologists, activists took their case to New York on February 14. Four hundred rallied in the United Nations' Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, and 86 were arrested for disorderly conduct on the steps of the U.S. Mission to the U.N. A solidarity action in London resulted in the arrest of three banner-holders on the steps of the U.S. Embassy.

The near-daily bombing of Iraq by U.S. and British warplanes is being accomplished not only by Air Force regulars, but with assistance from U.S. Air National Guard units from several states on a rotating basis.

In New York, the Air National Guard departed for Iraq from a base in Syracuse on February 26. The day before, Dick Keough attempted unsuccessfully to deliver petitions with 1,200 signatures from around the state to Governor George Pataki, calling on him to keep the Guard at home. On the day of the Guard's departure, sixty people attempted to enter the base with food and medicines, asking that the planes deliver the humanitarian goods instead of bombs to Iraq if they must go. Ten were arrested. Most later accepted a plea agreement and sentence of community service. Frank Carver, Mike deWaele and Neil Golden pleaded not guilty and await a trial date.

The following week, Jan Bazila, Bill Griffin, and Dick Keough climbed the fence of the base in protest, were arrested for trespass and released on their own recognizance. Their trial is set for May 12. Vigils have continued each Saturday morning at the base since then.

Then on March 17, Griffin and Keough returned to the Governor's office with 2,000 petition signatures. When his office again refused to accept the signatures, the men brought the reality of the suffering caused by the sanctions and bombing to the fore, pouring blood in the hallway of the office suite. Keough was held a few hours, Griffen overnight. Both were released on $5,000 bail, to face disorderly conduct and other charges.

The Iowa Air National Guard returned to Iraq again this winter. Three men were arrested last summer, leafletting the Guard's base at the Des Moines airport. By March 4, with the Guard set to return, a state-wide coalition, the Iowa Committee to End War Crimes Against Iraq, turned out 90 people to demonstrate at the base's main gate. Twenty-two people moved to block the gate and stop business as usual. All were cited for trespass and released by the next morning. Most have since pled either guilty or no contest, and were fined or sentenced to community service or probation . Jean Basinger, Rita Hohenshell, and Mike Sprong pleaded not guilty and await a trial date. The prosecuting attorney has indicated he will ask that the jury be permitted to consider any international law defense raised by the three.

In Michigan, Jim Lupton's sentencing for leafletting against the sanctions and bombing of Iraq at an Ann Arbor post office in December, 1998 is still pending, as a judge considers his motion challenging Michigan's jurisdiction in the case.

An Illinois judge is weighing arguments for and against an international law defense for seven people charged with blocking the gate of Scott Air Force Base on December 18, 1998. Scott was the transportation and logistics command center for Operation Desert Fox, the bombing campaign that began then against Iraq. No date for trial is set.

For more information, contact
Voices in the Wilderness, 1460 West Carmen Ave., Chicago, IL 60640, (773)784-8065; kkelly@igc.apc.org
New York: Dick Keough, (315)476-0048; rkeough@twcny.rr.com
Iowa: Fr. Frank Cordaro, (515)243-0765.
St. Louis: American Friends Service Committee, (314)862-5773.