Iraqi Mercy Dash
A BALLIOL GRADUATE is risking a 5-year prison sentence to deliver humanitarian aid to Iraq in protest at sanctions. Justin Alexander - a graduate in Physics and Philosophy - is leaving this week, and faces imprisonment because he does not have an export licence.
Alexander said: "There are three main aims of the trip: firstly, to take much needed medical supplies, secondly to show support to the Iraqi people, to let them know that we don't all hate them and that they are recognised as humans. The third aim is to document the situation and bring back information for use in campaigning and making people aware of the problem."
The supplies being taken include up-to-date medical journals, syringes and surgical gloves for operations, and muscle relaxant drugs for a young girl with serious breathing problems.
Iraq has been suffering since the bombing during the Gulf War in 1991, which destroyed almost all the country's vital services. The impact of insufficient provisions of education, health care, power, food and sanitation has been vast: over a million people have died from malnutrition and disease.
Alexander's reasons for protesting are clear: "When I learnt about the suffering of the Iraqi people under sanctions, I was devastated. The sanctions genocide will go down as one of the cruellest war crimes of the 20th century. It is never right to massacre innocent children in the way we have been doing, whatever our view of their government."
The trip is part of the "Voices in the Wilderness" campaign, funded by the participants themselves. More information is available on their website at: www.nonviolence.org/vitw/
9th Nov 2000