1. "The Whole World Should Know the Truth" reads one of the signs carried by several protesters who are part of a performance group called Chicks on Sticks. The group was part of a march and rally in downtown Minneapolis protesting the mainstream media's limited and uncritical coverage of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and the devastating effects of the UN/US sanctions on the people of Iraq - May 1999.

2. Bill Barnett and Brigid McDonald, Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet (CSJ), join others in denouncing UN/US sanctions and U.S. airstrikes against Iraq - Minneapolis, December 1997. UNICEF has estimated that 5,000-6,000 children under the age of five die each month in Iraq as a result of the UN/US imposed sanctions. Such a reality has led to an increasing worldwide realization that the sanctions are a direct attack, not on the ruling Hussein regime, but on the people of Iraq.

Numerous and diverse faith communities have been at the forefront of articulating and spreading this message: "Our brothers and sisters in Iraq [are] living under a pitiless embargo," declared Pope John Paul II in 1998. "The weak and the innocent cannot pay for mistakes for which they are not responsible." Responding to renewed U.S. airstrikes against Iraq in January 1999, the Pope noted that "military measures don't resolve problems . . . rather, they aggravate them." American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice (AMGPJ) similarly noted that "the only solution to this ongoing human catastrophe is to lift the economic sanctions on Iraq and cease all air raids immediately. Economic sanctions and aggressive bombings have only served to punish and alienate the innocent and defenseless Iraqi populace and have not had any significant impact on the current Iraqi government."

3. Kathy Kelly - October 1999. Initiator of Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end the UN/US sanctions against Iraq, Kathy and other campaign members have been threatened with heavy fines and prison sentences for their delivery of medical supplies and toys to Iraq. Kathy has been to Iraq ten times since 1996 - her most recent trip being in July 1999.

During the first two weeks of the Gulf War, Kathy was part of a peace encampment on the Iraqi-Saudi border called the Gulf Peace Team. Following an evacuation to Ammam, Jordan, team members stayed in the region for the next six months coordinating medical relief comvoys and study teams.

Kathy's activism predates her involvement in Iraq. In 1988 she served nine months in a maximum security prison for planting corn on a nuclear missile silo. She has also helped organize and has participated in non-violent direct action teams in Haiti and Bosnia.

Off-site Link: Voices in the Wilderness.

4-5. Long-time peace and justice activist Marie Bruan traveled to Iraq in May 1997 with the Iraq Sanctions Challenge - a delegation of 87 American citizens, including former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clarke. The group delivered $4 million of medicine and medical supplies to the Iraqi government's Ministry of Health and experienced firsthand the devastating effects of the sanctions upon the people of Iraq.

By traveling to Iraq without permission from the U.S. State Department, members of the delegation could have faced 12 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine for violating the sanctions. The threat of such dire consequences however, ultimately failed to deter Marie and her traveling companions: "My first response was 'I want to go,'" she said. "My second response was, 'I'm afraid to go.' My third response was, 'I must go.'"

Despite her lifelong commitment to justice and peace issues, Marie's experiences in Iraq forever changed her: "A few years ago, we in the peace movement might have said sanctions not war, but I think prolonged sanctions are worse than war - they hit the poor, the elderly and children . . . Most of the children we saw are dying of preventable illnesses and/or curable diseases - from malnutrition, from gastroenteritis, from vitamin deficiencies. They are the innocent victims of the sanctions . . . We must recognize [sanctions] for what they are - a form of genocide, a weapon of mass destruction and a crime against humanity.

6. A young boy unites with Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) during the 1999 May Day Parade in Minneapolis. Kathy Kelly of the group Voices in the Wilderness (see photograph 3) reports that some Iraqi people have told her that the worst thing to have ever happened to them has been to have oil under their land. They know that it is because of this rich resourse, that they have endured almost a decade of sanctions.

7. A young woman protests the sanctions on Iraq - Duluth, Minnesota, April 1999. Prior to the Gulf War, the Iraqi people were able to readily access clean water. Yet now, due to the intense bombing of the country's civilian infrastructure, the water and sanitation systems are in a state of collapse. Iraq is not allowed to import sufficient chlorine to purify its water or spare parts to repair its water and sanitation systems. As a result, the principle causes of illness and death in young children are water borne communicable diseases, such as diarrhea, typhoid and cholera.

8. April Knudson of WAMM prepares to march in the 1999 May Day Parade. The sign around her neck contains a quote from Chapter III, Article 54 of the Geneva Convention (1977): "Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited."

Off-site Link: Women Against Military Madness (WAMM).

9. Kate McDonald, CSJ, joins other justice and peace activists every Wednesday afternoon for a silent vigil to protest the sanctions on Iraq. The vigil is held on the Lake Street Bridge, which spans the Mississippi River and connects Minneapolis and St. Paul. Says Kate: "While vigiling I say to myself: If our message could eventually stop the sanctions and save even one child's life, my sitting on this hard bridge railing for an hour is well worth it!"

10. A student from Macalaster College announces the grim reality of the sanctions, rarely covered by the mainstream media, to passing traffic during a bannering on Snelling Ave., St. Paul - September 1999. Along with the devastating toll on human life, the sanctions have also had a negative impact on the family and social fabric of Iraq. There has been a rise in single-parent families and the number of orphans, a higher divorce rate, increased homelessness and a growth in prostitution. Among children there is a twenty to thirty percent school dropout rate, a rise in street crime, and increased begging and illiteracy. The lack of employment among young adults has fostered anger and impatience. The advances women had made in the civil and professional sectors have been lost, and the medical profession has been set back by almost a decade.

11. The magnificent creations of In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater were utilized by WAMM for their involvement in the 1999 May Day Parade - a participation that sought to highlight the intolerable human cost that the sanctions continue to take on the Iraqi people.

12. Mary Hannahan, Chair of the St. Paul DFL Party and member of WAMM - September 1999. Earlier in the year, Mary traveled to Iraq with Voices in the Wilderness. Upon her return she shared her experiences and insights through an article published in the November 1999 WAMM Newsletter: "My decision to take this journey . . . was an act of defying my training to be passive [and] was built on many earlier, smaller 'yes's' that I have been daring . . . I came home from my journey to Iraq with three facts. First, I have been lied to by the U.S. government about what is happening in Iraq, both through the government's 'spin' on events and by its omissions. All we hear, see, fear is Saddam Hussein . . . Yes, he is a menace . . . But in our frenzy to stop [him], the women, children, and men of Iraq are suffering and dying . . .

"The second fact I came home with is that U.S. planes are bombing Iraq almost daily . . . We are bombing, killing and severely wounding civilians, including children, in the towns and villages of the 'no fly zones' . . . The third fact I came home with is that the UN/US economic sanctions are killing, starving, depressing, and impoverishing the citizens of Iraq. Iraq civilians are always just a breath away from death. Without electricity daily, nor clean water or functioning sewage treatment, these people live in a country that resembles scenes from the 15th century . . .

"With no food, little hope, and less money, the people are desperate. Some are living in dissonance with their values in order to survive. Many look like the walking dead, going through each day in endless suffering and exhaustion, yet finding moments of joy in the smallest, simplest of interactions . . . I know that our dear sisters and brothers in Iraq - dignified, resilient, courageous human beings - deserve to live with the same security we know. As I figure out what is next for me, I will remember an eight-year-old girl I named 'Fire,' and I will hope she will live to speak out, and that we can be sisters-in-daring, one 'yes' at a time. Insha-Allah."

13. Christopher Mitchell - November 1999. In September 1999, Christopher was a key organizer of Macalester College Peace and Justice Committee's "Mid-West Iraq Sanctions Conference"--a three-day event which brought together nationally renowned speakers, local people recently returned from Iraq, students from Macalester College, and the general public.

14-16. Ken Masters, Brigid McDonald, CSJ, and a young student protest the sanctions at the weekly Peace Vigil on the Lake St./Marshall Ave. Bridge that spans the Mississippi and connects Minneapolis and St. Paul - February 2000.

Off-site Link: Twin Cities Campaign to Lift the Sanctions.

17. Kathleen Ruona spreads the message of the sanctions.

18. Mary Hannahan and Jane McDonald, CSJ, share a moment of quiet reflection during the weekly Peace Vigil.

19. Colleen Engeldinger protests the ongoing sanctions on the people of Iraq while standing across the street from the U.S. State Department--office of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright - April 10, 2000.

In 1996, when being interviewed on 60 Minutes, Madeleine Albright, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was asked if the deaths of a half-million children in Iraq were an acceptable price to pay for a policy. "I think this is a very hard choice," Albright acknowledged, "but the price, we think the price is worth it."