From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: "International" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 20:53:27 -0500 To: "International" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Sanctions Challenge to Baghdad: Investigate DU International Action Center 39 West 14th Street, NY, NY 10011 212-633-6646 fax: 212-633-2889 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.iacenter.org Founder Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General January 11, 2001 For Immediate release Press Contact: Emily Benedetto 212-633-6646 SANCTIONS CHALLENGE OFF TO BAGHDAD: TO INVESTIGATE DEPLETED URANIUM POISONING Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark is leaving Jan. 12 with 50 people on his International Action Center's fourth Iraq Sanctions Challenge for Baghdad. The delegation arrives in Jordan via Royal Jordanian flight 262 at 3:00 p.m. (Jordan time) and departs for Baghdad, Iraq 5 p.m. This is the first flight of Americans to Iraq. This delegation, which is bringing solidarity medical aid to Iraq, will have as a major project an investigation of illnesses in Iraq caused by depleted uranium. Ramsey Clark wrote an international appeal to Ban DU weapons in 1996 that is now circulating widely. The Challenge participants include Damacio Lopez, a New Mexico activist who has written extensively on DU since the early 1990s, and IAC Co-director Sara Flounders, who co- edited the book "Metal of Dishonor: How the Pentagon Radiates Soldiers and Civilians with Depleted Uranium Weapons." This book has been translated into Arabic in Iraq an d in Jordan. Clark said, "The Sanctions Challenge will perform a service by interviewing Iraqi scientists and doctors who have investigated DU's impact on the Iraqi population. The sanctions have isolated these scientists from their c olleagues around the world, prevented them from obtaining the proper equipment and stopped them from publishing their results internationally. "Our government is responsible for enormous suffering in Iraq and should be made to pay for the cleanup and care of the population," Clark said. "It is important," said Clark, "that we invite the scientists and doctors from Iraq to come to the United States and to Europe to take part in the investigation of DU poisoning. They have the experience. But they have bee n isolated for 10 years by the sanctions. We can invite them to come and speak of their experiences. Flounders, who is IAC co-director, said, "The Pentagon left 600,000 pounds of DU in the Gulf region, and smaller but still large amounts of DU in Bosnia, Kosovo and other parts of Serbia," she said. "They left it in armor -penetrating shells, land mines, in "smart bombs" and other munitions." "The first step," Flounders said, "is to bring out the truth. This will also help the people of the Balkans and the troops who served there." Flounders noted that European troops who have been occupying Bosnia and Kosovo have leukemia. About a dozen or so have died. Other troops have reported strange illnesses. People have been outraged about the possibility that the residue from U.S. depleted uranium weapons have caused these illnesses. Flounders also said that Palestinian organizations had demanded an investigation of possible Israeli use of DU to repress the Intifada that started last Sept. 28. The IAC had raised this issue in November. --30-- International Action Center 39 West 14th Street, Room 206 New York, NY 10011 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: http://www.iacenter.org CHECK OUT SITE http://www.mumia2000.org phone: 212 633-6646 fax: 212 633-2889 *To make a tax-deductible donation, go to http://www.peoplesrightsfund.org _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
