An anti-war demonstration in Raleigh, North Carolina

By Dina Rashed, IOL Chicago correspondent

CHICAGO, January 22 (IslamOnline) - Three antiwar delegations are expected to leave the U.S. to Iraq by the end of January and early February carrying humanitarian aid as part of the growing antiwar movements in the U.S. and worldwide.

In a news conference held Tuesday, January 21, at the National Press Club in Washington DC, the American peace activist Kathy Kelly announced that three delegations sponsored by Voices in the Wilderness.

Voices in the Wilderness a leading group working towards easing the affliction of the Iraqi people, will continue to show defiance to the current economic sanctions by traveling to Iraq and carrying medical and humanitarian aid.

The group will continue to help the Iraqis by exporting a more accurate picture of the situation there and help inform the American public about the reality of the Iraqi crisis by disclosing their accounts upon their return, Kelly told IslamOnline.

In an 18-page booklet Kelly disclosed a list of 200 peace activists from 34 U.S. states, who traveled to the devastated nation in the past decade.

The group also showed samples of the medicines and toys they are accused of having brought to Iraq.

Last November, the group that is co-founded by Kelly in 1996, was penalized by the Treasury Department with a $50,000 fine for breaking the sanctions, and carrying aid through the 60 delegations that left to Iraq in the past.

The group responded by sending the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which issued the penalty, a payment in the form of Iraqi currency instead.

“As payment for these fines, we have included 6,750 Iraqi dinar (ID). Prior
to the Gulf War and economic sanctions, these dinar were valued at
approximately $20,000; today they are worth roughly $3.33!

“This drastic rate of deflation is a direct result of the draconian economic sanctions,” said the group’s letter to R. Richard Newcomb, director of the OFAC at the Treasury Department.

The delegates do not intend to work as human shields for any specific sites in Iraq, but will be living with the Iraqis and showing solidarity against the current economic sanctions and sharing the consequences of any possible warfare pursued by the U.S., Kelly told IslamOnline.

The three delegations are expected to leave the U.S. on January 26, February 3 and February 8.

Kelly will be joining the delegations following a brief visit to Ireland where she will be publicly speaking out for the same cause.

In January 2003, Voices in the Wilderness was nominated for the third time for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Meanwhile, antiwar demonstrations continued in the U.S. Tuesday, as more people expressed their opposition to their government’s determination to attack Iraq.