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---------- From: "Voices in the Wilderness" <info@vitw.org> To: <info@vitw.org> Subject: VitW Press Release Date: Mon, Sep 23, 2002, 4:06 pm FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Baghdad: Ramzi Kysia, Henry Williamson, Danny Muller Al Fanar Hotel: 718-8007, 717-7440; ivoices@uruklink.org USA (Chicago): Kathy Kelly, Jeff Guntzel Voices in the Wilderness: 773-784-8065, 773-447-3964; info@vitw.org www.iraqpeaceteam.org WHERE: AL-MANSOUR PEDIATRIC WING, SADDAM TEACHING HOSPITAL WHEN: 10AM, TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 24TH American Anti-War Activists to Distribute Medicines to Baghdad Hospitals Baghdad, Sept. 24-American anti-war activists with the Iraq Peace Team arrived in Iraq Sunday and will be distributing medicines to the primary teaching hospital for Baghdad on Tuesday. The seven activists (Barbara Lubin, CA; Nathan Mauger, WA; Danny Muller, IL; Bill Quigley, LA; David Smith-Ferri, CA; Leah Wells, CA; Henry Williamson, SC) brought between US$20,000-$30,000 worth of medicines. The medicines were purchased and donated in the US and Jordan, and will be given to the Al-Mansour Pediatric Wing of Saddam Teaching Hospital at 10 a.m. Included are antibiotics, prenatal vitamins, adult and children's vitamins, antihistamines, and chemotherapy, hypertension and anti-nausea medications. IV catheters, syringes, alcohol swabs, rubber gloves and other medical equipment will also be donated to the hospital. Henry Williamson, a practicing paramedic, supervised the purchase of the most of the medicines. "We offer these medicines as a gift of peace in hope that alternatives to Bush's insatiable desire for war will be sought by all nations." he said. Williamson served three tours of duty in the Vietnam War as a combat medic and volunteered to serve in the Gulf War. He first traveled to Iraq in 1998. Williamson will be staying in Iraq for several months with Iraq Peace Team. In addition to giving the hospital medicines, Iraq Peace Team activists will meet with doctors and patients and talk about what kind of supplies are needed in hospitals across Iraq. US/UN-imposed sanctions have devastated the Iraqi economy, and blocked necessary medical supplies from reaching the hospitals. As a result of sanctions, according to UN agencies, thousands of Iraqi children die each month from otherwise easily treatable illnesses. Iraqi hospitals are trying to prepare for massive casualties from another US-led military assault on the country. "We are still lacking so many items, and so many companies still refuse to make contracts with Iraq," said Dr. Louai Atif Kasha'a, director of Saddam Teaching Hospital. "In this hospital, and this is a teaching hospital in the capital, we have a child die every day and sometimes two," said former administrator Dr. Mahmoud Mehi in December 2001. "Image what it is like outside the capital and in their rural areas?" Iraq Peace Team is a project of Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end the sanctions on Iraq. The goal is to place hundreds of international activists in major Iraqi cities before and during another attack. Activists will document and report on the humanitarian consequences a new war would have on ordinary people living in Iraq. ### _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk