Washington D.C., August 2 — A mass demonstration in front of the White House on August 6 will call for a lifting of the crippling economic embargo against Iraq, which has claimed the lives of more than half a million Iraqi children. A coalition of over seventy national organizations, including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the nation‘s largest Arab-American membership organization, is sponsoring a weekend of events (August 5-7) to raise awareness on the destructive human impact of sanctions and bombings on the people of Iraq.
Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Reverend Jim Lawson, British MP George Galloway will address the protestors, along with community leaders from around the country. NBC‘s West Wing President Martin Sheen will join the protest while legendary folk singer Pete Seeger will perform. The weekend will also feature teach-ins (Saturday, August 5), an interfaith vigil (Sunday, August 6), and mass civil disobedience to protest the sanctions (Monday, August 7).
WHO:
*Martin Sheen, Star of TV‘s West Wing
*Folk Singer Pete Seeger
*Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
*National Mobilization to End the Sanctions against Iraq (over 70 organizations)
WHAT:
Mass demonstration to protest Sanctions and Bombing of Iraq
WHERE & WHEN:
12 p.m. Sunday August 6 Lincoln Memorial (Interfaith Vigil & March to Lafayette Park) 2 p.m. Sunday August 6 Rally at the White House (Lafayette Park)
Ten years of UN sanctions have kept Iraq‘s basic infrastructure in disrepair, while shortages of food and medicine have led to widespread malnutrition and health emergencies. Last August, the UN Children‘s Fund (UNICEF) noted that between 1991 and 1998 half a million more children under the age of five died than expected in the absence of the war and UN sanctions. Both former coordinators of the Oil for Food program in Iraq, Dennis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck, have resigned in protest of the sanctions, in addition to Jutta Burghardt, head of the World Health Organization in Iraq.
See http://web.archive.org/web/20000815060506/http://www.endthewar.org/ for more background information on the August 5-7 events.