[Peace] Fwd:[ANSWER]: Dispatch from Ramsey Clark Peace Delegation in

[jencart]

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International Action Center
39 W. 14th Street #206 
New York, NY 10011 
(212) 633-6646 
http://www.iacenter.org


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28, 2002 

U.S. ANTI-WAR DELEGATION AT AREAS BOMBED BY U.S. WARPLANES  IN IRAQ

*More Bombings in Iraq as U.S.-British Warplanes Hit Mosul  and Suburb of Baghdad on Tuesday*

A U.S. anti-war delegation traveling through Iraq has 
visited areas that have been targeted by this week's U.S.  bombing campaign. The delegation -- stationed at Baghdad's  Al-Rasheed hotel until the end of the week -- was in Basra  on Tuesday. Basra is Iraq's second largest city and 
suffered a major bomb attack on Sunday morning August  25th. Eight people died and many civilians were injured, 
some seriously. 

The U.S. delegation, which is led by Ramsey Clark, former  U.S. attorney general will be inspecting Mosul airport in 
Northern Iraq tomorrow August 29. The airport and its  radar tower that guides civilian air traffic were hit by 
U.S. missiles on August 27.

On behalf of the delegation, Ramsey Clark issued the 
following statement:

"We came to Basra to visit the hospitals and interview 
doctors and patients about the state of health care in 
Basra. We had planned to come to Basra because the region  is suffering stunning cancer rates. This area in Iraq was  the site of the greatest use of depleted uranium weapons  by U.S. air force in the Gulf War eleven years ago."

"Two days before we arrived in Basra U.S. war planes 
struck again killing and wounding more than twenty people.  We visited one of the wounded at the Basra Training 
Hospital and we interviewed workers in the area who saw  and heard the gigantic explosion at approximately 11:00 am  Sunday morning August 25. While we were in Basra, U.S. war  planes carried out two more major bombing attacks against  the airport in Mosul and against civil and service 
installations in Al-Nukhayb, located south of Baghdad. We  will inspect the airport at Mosul tomorrow.

"People in the United States must recognize that the war  against Iraq goes on every day as the Bush administration  prepares for a major land and ground war. The economic  sanctions are a central part of the decade-long war waged  against Iraq by the United States. Bombing and sanctions  constitute an integrated strategy designed to overthrow  the government in Iraq and replace it with a proxy regime  similar to what exists in Afghanistan. The U.S. government  falsely declares that its campaign against Iraq is 
motivated by a concern over Iraq's potential possession of  non-conventional weapons. The real goal is to dominate 
this strategic and oil-rich region and to destroy any 
government and people that desire to maintain their 
independence."

"We witnessed in Basra the care provided to the large 
number of adults and children who are suffering high rates  of cancer. Certain childhood cancers, for instance, have  increased by a huge factor in the last few years. While 
they can be treated by combination drug therapy protocols,  Iraqi hospitals are unable to effectively import all of 
the medicines needed for the protocol. As a consequence,  almost all the children with these cancers perish. It is 
the U.S. imposed sanctions that makes access to the full  protocol impossible. Deliberately obstructing sick 
people's access to medicines that would keep them alive  otherwise must be understood as murder."

"It is urgent that this country be allowed to trade, buy 
and sell all the products necessary to sustain and improve  life. U.S. imposed sanctions have killed more than a 
million Iraqis. The near-daily bombing since 1998 has 
killed hundreds if not thousands of people