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Members of the US families announcing donations they raised for the Fallujah refugees (AFP)
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By Adam Wild Aba, IOL Correspondent
WASHINGTON,
January 4 (IslamOnline.net) – With pictures of their smiling marine
sons in their wallets and memories about the good old days always vivid,
bereaved US families wrapped up last week a visit to Iraq in protest at
the American occupation and in solidarity with thousands of Iraqis
displaced by the US monster firepower.
Californian
Rosa Suarez del Solar and her Husband Fernando, whose marine son died in
Iraq in March last year, led the grief-stricken families, anti-war
activists and families of 9/11 victims in their soul-searching tour,
which kicked off on December 26.
And
they were unified by a common ground: A strong determination to expose
the US administration of George W. Bush and its misleading everything is
going OK clichés to the entire world.
“We
lost our son to an illegal war that is now destroying the lives of
thousands of Iraqi children,” Fernando said. “We, as parents, must
say ‘Stop the killing, comfort the children.'”
In
addition to Rosa and Fernando, the delegation also includes Jeffrey
Ritterman, of Physicians for Social Responsibility, Jodie Evans,
co-founder of CodePink: Women for Peace, Medea Benjamin, co-founder of
Global Exchange and CodePink, and Hany Khalil, a national organizer for
the group United for Peace and Justice.
The
organizations sponsoring their tour are CodePink, Project Guerrero
Azteca for peace, Global Exchange, the Middle East Children's Alliance,
Physicians for Social Responsibility, Peace Action, United for Peace and
Justice, and Voices in the Wilderness.
They
secured diplomatic courtesy letters from US Senators Barbara Boxer of
California and Raul Grijalva of Arizona and Congressmen Dennis Kucinich
of Ohio and Henry Waxman of California.
Fernando
said had it not been for the help of the two congressmen, their tour
would have not seen the light due to obstacles laid by the Pentagon.
Fallujah
Aid
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An Iraqi family with relief supplies in Fallujah
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Feeling
for thousands of Iraqis killed and made homeless by the US military
juggernaut, they raised US$600,000 worth of humanitarian aid to the
refugees of the war-torn city of Fallujah.
In
an Internet appeal, they raised over US$100,000 in donations from
Americans, who found it hard to buy the sweet-talk of their
administration and joined the anti-war alliance.
“Your
donations have provided thousands of cold, grieving refugees, especially
children, with blankets, sweaters, heaters, portable stoves, clean water
and antibiotics,” the group thanked the benevolent in a CodePink’s
online statement.
At
least 2,000 Iraqis and 71 US soldiers were killed in a sweeping US raid
into Fallujah in November, which displaced some 200,000 people and
turned the city into a virtual ghost town.
The
refugees started returning to their “uninhabitable”
homeland last month, facing new draconian US police measures with their
finger prints taken and their retinas scanned. They were further forced
to wear special ID badges.
Cluster
Bombs
Fernando
said he believed it when he saw unexploded cluster bombs scattering
across vast swathes of Iraq.
He
said the tennis ball-like bombs threaten the lives of thousands of Iraqi
children, who innocently used to sift through the debris and the rubble
of their destroyed homes.
International
aid agencies had said that hundreds of Iraqi civilians were maimed
after tampering with the bombs with children making most of the victims.
Britain’s
The Observer published last year a map showing vast areas of the
occupied country at danger from live munitions.
The
12-person delegation met with Iraqi doctors, human rights workers, and
families hurt by the occupation.
In
Jordan, they were banned by authorities from holding a candlelit vigil
outside UN headquarters on December 31.
“We
are all very upset because we had done similar protests all over the
world. We're very shocked,” Benjamin told Agence France-Presse AFP.
As
they were heading home, the families sang in unison, “All we are
saying, is give peace a chance.”
