Imprimir
Enviar
Friday April 23, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Please forward immediately to your media lists
(Najaf, Iraq) As numerous people from
nonprofit organizations working
in Iraq evacuated the country during the past
week, an independent emergency
delegation of U.S. civilians was preparing to
enter the conflict-torn
nation,traveling to the tense stand-off around
Najaf, where the U.S.
military recently deployed almost 3,000 troops
for a looming assault to
crush Shiite rebels there.
The Najaf Emergency Peace Team, “Peace Between
Peoples”, a handful of
determined volunteers from several
well-established peace/global
justice/human rights and religious organizations,
has now
arrived in the area, to place themselves
“nonviolently, symbolically and
physically” between the U.S. armed forces massed
nearby and the civilian
population of the ancient holy city - in the way
of any American military
assault.
The delegation has received messages of
encouragement from religious and
community leaders in south-central Iraq,
including an advisor to Ayatollah
Ali al-Sistani. “We understand the dangers of
our journey, but we are
determined to try and contribute in our own small
way to peace and justice
for the people of Najaf and Iraq. Only when
peacemakers are willing to
shoulder some of the same risks that soldiers
take in war, can we begin to
move away from the cycle of violence that grips
human society at the dawn of
the 21st century,” says the group’s statement.
Meg Lumsdaine, Peter Lumsdaine, Mario Galvan,
Trish Schuh, and Brian
Buckley - of California, New York and Virginia,
respectively - are now in
south-central Iraq to carry out their peace
mission.
Rev. Meg Lumsdaine is an ordained Lutheran pastor
who has previously been
involved in human rights delegations to Latin
America and Iraq. Peter
Lumsdaine is coordinator of the Military
Globalization Analysis Project and
organizer of the Najaf delegation. Mario Galvan,
a high school teacher, is
a national board member of Peace Action, with
100,000 members throughout the
U.S., and a founding member of the Zapatista
Solidarity Coalition. Trish
Schuh co-founded the Military Families Support
Network in 1990 and was
involved in Military Families Speak Out. Brian
Buckley is a carpenter and
member of the Little Flower Catholic Worker
community.
The Najaf emergency delegation can be
contacted for interviews and more
information by e-mail, as their peace witness and
nonviolent challenge to
the U.S. military assault plan unfolds in the
days ahead.
[Contact the delegation through:
mariogalvan44@hotmail.com - or find us in
the Najaf area April 24 to April 30, and possibly
beyond.]
Clajadep invita a sumarse a la iniciativa.
Escriba a Mario y apoye el viaje de estos valientes.
