1) FROM GROUND ZERO TO BAGHDAD
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Zahra was on my left as I entered the children's ward at the Al Mansour Hospital in Baghdad. A tiny child, cradled in her grandmother's lap, her eyes were serene and steady, gazing out of the wrinkled face of a sixty-year old man.

Zahra's stillness, her unwavering observation of the world that had failed her, and her stick-thin limbs, have stayed with me through the past three and a half years.

These years since my first delegation to Iraq have been spent trying to establish, through the fog of government lies, what is happening in Iraq, compiling statistics and reports.

But statistics are not the whole story. It is one thing for a US epidemiologist to say the economic sanctions on Iraq have been the primary factor in the deaths of 230,000 children.

It is another to stand in a hospital ward surrounded by a dozen women wailing in fear and grief as a consultant resuscitates a small child who is doomed to die within hours because of the conditions created by economic sanctions.

It is one thing for the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation to say that over 800,000 children in Iraq are chronically malnourished (Sept 2000).

It is another to meet a young child whose life and mind and body will always be stunted because of malnutrition caused by the conditions created by economic sanctions.

It is one thing to read about the diseases of malnutrition in one of (potentially) the richest countries in the world. It is another to meet a child like Zahra, with the classic 'old man's face' marker of 'marasmus'.

Ground Zero

Matt Barr has agreed to represent voices in the wilderness uk on a Walk for Healing and Peace, from Washington DC to Ground Zero in New York (see next page), where I will join him before we journey together to Baghdad.

President Bush's advisers demand that public outrage over the September 11 atrocities be used as an excuse to attack Iraq as well as Afghanistan.

Together with friends from voices us, including Kathy Kelly, founder of our parent organisation, Matt and I will be in Iraq in December to protest against the continuing economic sanctions on Iraq, and against the threat to launch yet more strikes on the people of Iraq.

We want to help people in Britain realise that there isn't simply one man living in Iraq, but 22 million people, millions of ordinary families struggling to survive in appalling conditions created by economic sanctions.

We know the risks involved. But we also know that children like Zahra desperately need our attention. I hope the world never fails my son Arkady as Zahra was failed.

Milan Rai, joint coordinator,
voices in the wilderness uk

2) A WALK FOR HEALING
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Dear Friends,

We are writing to announce a walk which voices in the wilderness us will help coordinate and to invite your involvement and support: A Walk for Healing and Peace - From Washington DC to NYC - November 25 - December 4.

Following the tragedies that occurred on September 11, 2001, in New York City, Washington, DC, and in Pennsylvania, several individuals spoke to the world words of extraordinary spiritual depth and courage.

Even as they mourned their loss of beloved family members and close friends, they asked that the deaths of their loved ones not be used to justify retaliatory attacks on other innocent people.

In the past weeks, US armed forces have daily attacked Afghanistan. Millions of people there now face hunger, displacement, and fear of further attacks.

The war could spread to other countries. With each passing day, we increasingly appreciate calls to resist war, hunger, and revenge.

We are particularly respectful of the testimony given in statements mentioned above - those words collectively clarified: "Our Grief Is Not A Cry For War." See the voices us website (end of next column).

Walkers will use such testimony as a moral compass in a pilgrimage from Washington DC to NYC.

Led by Buddhist and Franciscan monks, and joined from time to time by various leaders of faith-based and peacemaking communities, we will depart from Washington DC, on Sunday, November 25. The route will include visits to Baltimore, MD, Princeton, NJ, Philadelphia, PA, and Trenton, NJ, arriving in New York City on Saturday, December 1. (A large bus will assist with shuttling during parts of the route.)

At each stop along the way, walkers and supporters will invite members of the public to join them for public events.

We must not forget the hundreds of thousands of people who have died and are still dying from the effects of economic and military warfare in the Middle East.

We must not forget Iraqi mothers who have wept over their dying children and yet said, "We pray that this will never happen to a mother in your country."

We must not forget the refugee families facing the Afghan winter without food or shelter.

We will welcome accompaniment, on the road, from all those who want to be guided by the calls for nonviolence.

For more information about the itinerary and about the public gatherings, please contact (646) 208 2098 or walk4peace@yahoo.com

This walk is endorsed by The National Coalition for Peace and Justice.

Concurrent with this walk will be national days of prayer and fasting coordinated by the National Network to End the War Against Iraq (NNEWAI - www.endthewar.org)

You can phone voices in the wilderness us on 00-1-773-784- 8065 or visit their valuable website at http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw Their postal address is 1460 West Carmen Ave, Chicago IL 60640.

3) BREAKING
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We break the sanctions because they are a weapon of mass destruction.

We break the sanctions because they have killed hundreds of thousands of children.

We break the sanctions because one of the finest health systems in the Middle East has been broken and destroyed as a matter of policy.

We break the sanctions because a people who had clean drinking water now have to drink water unfit for human consumption.

We break the sanctions because a crime against humanity is being perpetrated in our name.

We break the sanctions because the government lies and lies about the effects of the policies it supports.

We break the sanctions because food and medicines have been affected by sanctions.

We break the sanctions because the oil-for-food deal has failed to meet the needs of the Iraqi people.

We break the sanctions because we cannot obey the rules that are killing civilians in their thousands every month.

We break the sanctions because we have seen the children dying in front of our eyes in Iraqi hospitals while British ministers claim to have no quarrel with the Iraqi people.

We break the sanctions because after ten years of vigils, and demonstrations, and lobbies, and letters, and countless, countless leaflets, the time has come to say with our whole selves, with our futures, with our freedom, we will not be part of this.

We break the sanctions because a whole people is in agony through our cruelty and indifference.

Milan Rai, co-founder voices uk

4) FEAR AND JOY
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Interview with Matt Barr, Delegation participant, Sun. 4 Nov.

Matt is representing voices in the wilderness uk on the voices us- organised 'Walk for Healing and Peace' from Washington DC to New York at the end of this month (see page 3 for more details). He will then be taking part in the joint US-UK delegation to Iraq in Dec. 2001.

Matt: I've just turned 21 [two nights earlier!]. Currently I'm a student, doing a sound recording course. Interests are music-based, obviously, though politics and activism is my first love behind music.

voices: What drew you to take part in a sanctions-breaking delegation?

Matt: Initially, it was because I was so horrified by what was happening in Iraq, and in my name as a member of the British public.

I felt almost powerless in what I could do as a persuasive measure in government, and so I felt this was a very positive way to show the Iraqi people that though this was handed out by the British government, it wasn't necessarily supported by the British public.

But also because I felt that by going to Iraq and witnessing what's happening, I kind of felt that it might in some way add an element of credibility, that there were eyewitness accounts, and people had seen it for themselves, and it wasn't all based on statistics, and reports from the UN.

I felt it was important to have personal accounts of individuals in Iraq, individual families, individual children, who have stories of their own. Because that way you could humanise what was going on, rather than it being 'collated data'.

I'm a great believer in accepting responsibility for one's actions, and I feel that our government are strongly denying any responsibility, so just wanted to act, I guess, in whatever small form an individual could.

voices: After September 11, the sanctions-breaking delegation was postponed indefinitely, and a new kind of delegation was proposed, which is now going to take place in December. How did you feel about that sequence of events?

Matt: My initial reaction was disappointment, because my prime focus was a sanctions-breaking delegation. But, increasingly, as the reaction to September 11 in Britain and the US has occurred, it has become more and more important to focus on peace-related means of action.

I guess, initially, my reaction was: do I still want to go? Do I want to put myself in that position? Am I willing to put myself in that position?

And it took me a long time from being absolutely determined to go on a sanctions-breaking delegation to all of a sudden the context of the delegation changing.

I was unsure whether or not I was willing to put myself in that position.

I was still adamant that I wanted to go, and that I believed in the delegation, thought it was vitally important that it go ahead. But whether or not I could really put myself in that position, I had to sit down and really question and work out whether it was suitable for me at that point in time to go ahead with it.

It took me a couple of weeks to get my head around the potential connotations of military action while I was there. I came to the conclusion that I felt so strongly about what was going on in Iraq, and what has been going on in Iraq, that that almost became a secondary issue.

Because it was out of my control. I don't have control over what may or may not happen while I'm there. I have control over whether I choose to go. And the reasons for wanting to go, the reasons I feel I need to go, didn't change, despite the fears and the doubts about the possibilities of actions that might happen while I was there.

It was, it still is, a very frightening prospect.

But when I think about the fact that this delegation will last ten days that we're physically in Iraq, it's nothing compared to what it must be like to live under these conditions, and to have to exist, survive, with such knowledge that these things might happen. It's nothing compared to having to actually get on with life and deal with it, which the Iraqi people do, and they don't have a choice in it. I kind of felt that it was a risk that I was willing to take, and accept the consequences of it, because I'm appalled - and outraged - by what is going on in Iraq.

If any military action were to happen, whether I'm there or not, I would be strongly opposed to it. Like the sanctions policy, it would affect the civilian population more so than anybody else, and that resonates with me very strongly: there is an innocent population in Iraq that have all but been forgotten about.

voices: There is a real risk of death, and injury, perhaps even incarceration, on this delegation. How do you feel about that?

Matt: I feel terrified really. And petrified by the possibility of death. It's a very very daunting and ral prospect. When I sat down and thought about it, it was one of the worst experiences I've gone through, thinking of leaving my family and my loved ones behind, and how they would cope, what it would be like for them.

It was gruelling, and a very painful experience. It was actually horrendous. It was a very hard thing for me to get through. The thing that did get me through, and to a certain extent surprised me, was the fact that even after I'd acknowledged the possibility of such things happening, my desire to actually go hadn't decreased or been diluted whatsoever.

There was no wavering in my desire to go.

I still am very fearful about going, and will be throughout the delegation, I am sure. But my willingness and determination to do this burns so much brighter than my fears that I feel as though I have to follow my heart and stand up for what I believe in. Though my fears are very real, I don't want them inhibiting doing what I believe in.

I have absolutely no desire to die in Iraq. It's the last thing I want to happen, be it a US or UK delegate, or an Iraqi person. It's the last thing I want to happen, and I'm sure it's the last thing my family want to happen.

voices: How do you feel about joining the Walk for Healing and Peace in the US?

Matt: When I was asked to do it, I was overjoyed. To be able to take part in something as significant as that, for me personally, the emotions and the energy that I'll get out of it. It's such a needed thing to be done, and to be part of that, will be a wonderful thing, to stand up and be counted in a peaceful movement, trying to find peaceful resolutions.

It will be really overwhelming, and I'm honoured actually to be able to actually take part in this, and it's something that will never leave me.

Even though I haven't done it yet, I feel proud of it's happening, regardless of my participation or not. And to be part of it is a very special thing.

5) SUPPORT
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Sending Matt and Milan Rai, voices uk co-founder, on the Walk and the delegation to Iraq is going to cost voices over £2,500. £500 has already been raised. Matt and Mil would very much appreciate donations, however large or small, to help fund this project. voices relies entirely on donations from individuals.