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IslamOnline
hosted a live dialogue session with Jo Wilding, an Iraq-based
British anti-war activist and former human shield.
Click
here
to read the live dialogue in full.
Jo
Wilding is a 29-year-old human rights campaigner, writer and
trainee lawyer from Bristol, UK. Currently based in Iraq, she is
taking part in Circus 2 Iraq, “a small group of circus
performers - fools, clowns, jugglers, stilt walkers and
magicians - set up to… perform and give circus skills
workshops to children [in Iraq] traumatised by sanctions, war
and its aftermath.”
She
first came to Iraq in August 2001 with Voices in the Wilderness
to break the sanctions, as an act of civil disobedience, and to
get a perspective on what was happening, for the purpose of
advocacy work in the UK. In November 2002 she forced the UK
Customs and Excise to take her to court for breaking the
sanctions. It was the first time that the legality of the
sanctions had been considered directly by a British court.
Wilding also appeared in court in March 2001 for throwing fruit
at Tony Blair in a protest against sanctions.
She
returned to Iraq as an independent observer in February 2003 and
stayed for the month before the war and the first 11 days of the
bombing as a human shield, before being expelled by the Iraqi
foreign ministry as part of a purge of independent foreigners.
During
the war Jo Wilding interviewed civilian casualties in hospitals,
took witness statements and medical reports, and - wherever
possible - visited the scene of the bombing to take statements
from witnesses in order to have a record of what happened to
people - and to file some legal cases against the British and US
governments, some of which are ongoing.
Her
writings about the situation for ordinary Iraqis were published
in the Guardian, the New Zealand Herald, Counterpunch,
Australian radio, and in Japan, Korea and Pakistan.
Listed
below are her current projects, which are funded by the Joseph
Rowntree Reform Trust and Funding for Change, as well as by
donations from people who attended the talks she gave in the UK.
1.
Writing about the current situation from the perspective of
people she meets in Iraq - and about what happened to them
during the 2003 war, the sanctions and the years when Saddam was
in power
2.
Setting up twinning links between schools, universities and
hospitals in the UK and Iraq, which will help in the
rehabilitation of the education system (especially the
libraries), help Iraqi doctors make up for the 13 years of
isolation from technical progress, and increase the exchange of
information between the two countries
3.
Taking part in Circus 2 Iraq
4.
Filing suitable cases in the European Court of Human Rights
against the British government for its (and its allies’)
violation of human rights in Iraq
5.
Supporting various grassroots Iraqi organizations
6.
Representing Child Victims of War - a UK-based organization - in
Iraq, by talking to paediatric doctors about the equipment and
assistance they need
Click
here
to read an article (by Felicity Arbuthnot) based on a true story
that Jo Wilding witnessed.
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