Here we honor our sisters and brothers,
who through nonviolent means tried to make
the world a better place for all of us, and made the supreme sacrifice.
American woman peace activist killed by IDF
bulldozer in Gaza
Ha’aretz, Sunday, March 16, 2003
Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent, and Agencies
An American woman peace protester was killed Sunday by
an IDF bulldozer, which ran her over during the demolition of a house at
the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. Another activist was
wounded in the incident.
Rachel Corey(sic), 23, from Olympia, Washington, was
killed when she ran in front of the bulldozer to try to prevent it from
destroying a house, doctors in Gaza said. “Corey was killed in the al-
Salam neighbourhood when an Israeli bulldozer covered her with sand as she
stood in front of a bulldozer,” said Dr Ali Musa, a doctor from the al-
Najar hospital in the southern Gaza Strip. He said she died from skull and
chest fractures.
The IDF said it was checking the report. The U. S. State
Department had no immediate comment.
Greg Schnabel, 28, from Chicago, said the protesters
were in the house of Dr. Samir Masri. “Rachel was alone in front of the
house as we were trying to get them to stop,” he said. “She waved for
bulldozer to stop and waved. She fell down and the bulldozer kept going.
We yelled ‘stop, stop, ‘ and the bulldozer didn’t stop at all. It
had completely run over her and then it reversed and ran back over her.”
Since the start of the Intifada, groups of international
protesters have gathered in several locations in territories, setting
themselves up as “human shields” to try to stop IDF operations.
Corey was the first member of the groups, called
“International Solidarity Movement,” to be killed in the conflict.
Schnabel said Corey was a student at Evergreen College and was to graduate
this year. He said there were eight protesters at the site, four from the
United States and four from Great Britain. “We stay with families whose
house is to be demolished,” he told the Associated Press by telephone
from Rafah after the incident.
Note; Ha’aretz article misspelled Rachel Corrie's last name.
Dublin-born charity worker Margaret Hassan moved to Iraq 30 years ago,
and began working for Care International soon after it began operations
there in 1991.
When she was kidnapped, she had been head of the
charity's operations in the country for some 12 years.
Married to an Iraqi, Mrs. Hassan has Irish, British and Iraqi nationality.
Her friend Felicity Arbuthnot, a film-maker who has traveled to Iraq to
document Mrs Hassan's work, described her as "an extraordinary
woman".
"She is one of those slender people with a spine of steel," she
said.
"She stayed there through the 1991 war, the bombings last year, all
the horrors of the embargo.
"She has tremendous presence. If there is anybody who can build a
rapport with whoever these people are, she will," Ms Arbuthnot said.
She said she had once travelled with Mrs Hassan to a
water sanitation plant in a poor area of Iraq and seen her effect on the
local people she was helping.
"A crowd gathered and tiny children rushed up and threw their arms
round her knees, saying, 'Madam Margaret, Madam Margaret,' and everywhere
she went, people just beamed.
"She was so loved and everybody was so open with
her and this is what makes it so extraordinary."
Robert Glasser, chief executive of Care Australia, said:
"It is important to note that she has been providing humanitarian
relief to the most needy Iraqis in a professional career spanning more
than 25 years.
"She has been on the ground helping the poor in
Iraq for over 25 years."
*excerpt from BBC News "Profile: Margaret Hassan",
10/20/2004
Sister Dorothy Stang
Missionary and defender of the Amazon rainforest in
Brazil
15 February 2005
Sister Dorothy Stang spent the last 22 years of her life
fighting to preserve the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, while helping small
peasant farmers to make a living from the patches of land they had carved
out of the jungle.
Dorothy
Stang, a naturalized Brazilian originally from Dayton, Ohio, was
attacked Saturday, 2/12/2005, in a settlement 30 miles (50 kilometers)
from Anapu, where she worked helping some 400 families survive in the
rugged jungle.
A witness said that when two gunmen approached her, she pulled out a Bible
and began to read. Her killers listened for a moment, took a few steps
back and fired, he said. Coroners said she was shot six times at close
range by two guns.
The Amazon is also a battleground between poor residents and ecologists on
the one hand, and the logging companies and wealthy ranchers who have
steadily pushed deeper into the world's largest rain forest on the other.
Colleagues said Stang helped develop sustainable development projects to
benefit poor residents in Anapu, which is located on the southern edge of
the rain forest. Development, logging and farming has already destroyed as
much as 20 percent of the Amazon's 1.6 million square miles (4 million
square kilometers).
Stang spoke out against the destruction, and warned that land speculators
were arming themselves, but she received little response from the
government.
Police were searching for four suspects in connection with her killing:
two hired gunmen, an intermediary and the man they say ordered the
killing.
Her death also pushed the government to look at some of
the problems Stang had denounced, and authorities announced a crackdown on
illegal logging.
Many environmentalists expect the government will
declare much of the disputed area a forest reserve, where settlers can
live provided they keep the forest mostly intact.
Marla Ruzicka
April 16, 2005
In this photo released by World Picture News on Sunday
April 17 2005, American civilian Marla Ruzicka, of the Washington DC-based
human rights group Civic Worldwide, poses with an Iraqi family that was
helped by her organization in Baghdad, Iraq,
Friday, April 15, 2005. Ruzicka was killed by a car bomb attack in Baghdad
Saturday, April 16, 2005. (AP Photo / Scott Nelson, World Picture News,
ho)
Ruzicka dedicated her life to helping others. At 28, she had traveled to
Africa to work on AIDS
issues, to Cuba to protest the U.S. embargo and to Afghanistan
after the U.S.-led war there. The blond-haired activist with a cherubic
face and infectious smile was a one-woman campaign against human suffering
who was instrumental in securing millions of dollars in aid for
distribution in Iraq.
"It's a terrible tragedy and a tragic irony that somebody who devoted
her life to helping the victims of war would herself become a victim of
war," said Medea Benjamin, director of the San Francisco-based human
rights group Global Exchange, where Ruzicka got her start a decade ago in
the world of non-governmental organizations.
Ruzicka, of Lakeport, Calif., founded the Campaign for Innocent Victims in
Conflict, or CIVIC, to help families of civilians killed and injured in
Iraq. Her parents were notified of her death on Saturday, just hours after
the blast in Baghdad. U.S. Embassy officials publicly released Ruzicka's
name Sunday.
"We've been very worried about her, but we know better than to tell
our children not to do anything. We were supportive and just reminded her
to be careful," said her mother, Nancy Ruzicka.
She said her daughter had left her a telephone message the night before
her death, saying, "Mom and dad, I love you. I'm OK."
She cared about people and gave people her love and help," she said.
"I'll remember the love she spread around the world and the good
ambassador that she was for her country."
Ruzicka helped acquire millions of dollars from the federal government for
distribution in Iraq.
"She came to us with the idea of putting a special fund in the
foreign aid bill to take care of projects to help people whose businesses
had been bombed by the U.S by mistake or collateral damage of some
sort," Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy (news,
bio,
voting
record) of Vermont said Sunday.
"Just from the force of her personality, we decided to take a chance
on it," said Leahy, who planned to speak about Ruzicka on the Senate
floor Monday and possibly help organize a memorial service for her in
Washington.
"She was constantly calling us to say they're moving too
slowly," he said. "She was kind of a one-person department over
there ... moving the money around."
Benjamin recalled that Ruzicka walked into the Global
Exchange office 10 years ago as a "pretty, peppy, vivacious young
woman who wanted to learn about the world."
"She had this real thirst to learn and always had a tremendous sense
of compassion," Benjamin said. "She was quite remarkable in her
ability to absorb different issues, quickly learn about other cultures and
become an ally to people all over the world."
Ruzicka was set to leave Iraq within a week, according
to the New York-based group Human Rights Watch.
"Everyone who met Marla was struck by her incredible effervescence
and commitment," Kenneth Roth, the group's executive director, said
in a statement. "She was courageous and relentless in pursuit of
accurate information about civilians caught up in war."
In an essay Ruzicka sent to Human Rights Watch a few days before her
death, she explained the significance of her work assessing casualties.
"A number is important not only to quantify the cost of the war, but
to me each number is also a story of someone whose hopes, dreams and
potential will never be realized, and who left behind a family,"
Ruzicka wrote.
When President
Bush announced in March 2003 that the invasion of Iraq had
begun, Ruzicka was already in Baghdad with Code Pink, said Jodi Evans, the
co-founder of the women's anti-war group.
"Bush came on television saying the game is over, we're invading
Iraq," Evans recalled. Other activists decided to return to the
United States to talk about how the Iraqi people were affected by the
invasion, but Ruzicka made a commitment to stay. She founded the group
CIVIC that year.
"Marla thought she would be more effective staying, because once the
bombs started falling, people would be hurt and she needed to help them
get their lives back together," Evans said.
Even as fighting continued to rage in sections of Baghdad in mid-April
2003, Ruzicka arrived back in the Iraqi capital, set up office in an
unprotected hotel and soon was a regular visitor to the city's makeshift
newsrooms, encouraging media interest in the civilian-casualty story.
Ruzicka is among several foreign aid workers killed in Iraq. Others
included Margaret Hassan, a British aid worker who was abducted in Baghdad
in October and later shown on video pleading for her life, and four
workers for a Southern Baptist missionary group who were trying to find a
way to provide clean water to people in the northern city of Mosul.
A funeral service was scheduled for Saturday in Lakeport. Associated Press Special Correspondent Charles J. Hanley contributed to
this story from New York.
A prominent Somali peace activist has been shot dead by unknown
gunmen at his home in the capital, Mogadishu.
Through his Centre
for Research and Dialogue, Abdulkadir Yahya Ali tried to
resolve Somalia's 14-year civil war.
Witnesses said about five attackers handcuffed his security
guards, cut off the phone lines and shot him in front of his wife.
The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says the killing has
shocked the city's residents.
Al-Qaeda
The co-director of the Centre
for Research and Dialogue (CRD) Jabril Abdulle told the BBC's
Focus on Africa programme that Mr Yahya had turned down the chance
to leave Somalia because he wanted to help rebuild the country.
He said he was the first person to arrived after the shooting,
which happened at 0230 local time (2330GMT on Sunday).
"As soon as I got there, I saw Yayha lying [outside] his
house, while his wife was inside crying," he said.
Mr. Yahya was buried on Monday morning.
In a report published over the weekend, the International Crisis
Group (ICG) think-tank said Islamist groups linked to al-Qaeda
were suspected of involvement in the apparent assassination of
four aid workers and 10 former police or military officers in the
past two years.
Mr. Jabril denied reports that the CRD worked with the ICG.
But he said that those behind the killing may have thought this
and killed Mr Yahya because of this "misunderstanding".
In its report, the ICG said: "Since 2003, Somalia has
witnessed the rise of a new, ruthless independent jihadi network
with links to al-Qaeda."
"In the rubble-strewn streets of the ruined capital of this
state without a government... al-Qaeda operatives, jihadi
extremists, Ethiopian security services and Western-backed
counter-terrorism networks are engaged in a shadowy and complex
contest waged by intimidation, abduction and assassination,"
the ICG said.
'Optimist'
United Nations resident and humanitarian coordinator for
Somalia, Maxwell Gaylard, expressed shock at Mr Yahya's death.
"Yahya was a committed advocate for peace and reconciliation,
and his optimism never faltered," Mr Gaylard said in a
statement from Kenya.
"This is a great loss to Mogadishu and Somalia at this
particular time when people of his courage and tenacity are most
needed."
A government set up after more than two years of talks in Kenya is
deeply divided.
President Abdullahi Yusuf says that Mogadishu is too dangerous and
wants the government to be based in the town of Jowhar.
But the speaker of parliament, Sharif Hasan Shaykh Adan, and the
warlords who control Mogadishu and who have been named as
government ministers, insist that the government must be based in
the capital.
Last week, Mr Yusuf told the BBC that he would soon start to head
south from his northern stronghold collecting troops and militia
as he goes, raising fears of fighting between the two sides.
Community Leader's Death Highlights Danger of Resisting
Violence in Colombia
Abid Aslam, OneWorld US Mon
Oct 31, 2005 8:35 PM ET
WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct 31 (OneWorld) - The murder of a well-known
peace activist in Colombia has highlighted endemic violence in the
Latin American country, and the vulnerability of people trying to
resist it, despite high-profile steps toward ending civil war.
Local authorities reported discovering on Tuesday the body of
Orlando Valencia, a leader of the Afro-Colombian peace community of
Curvarado. Valencia, who had been ''disappeared'' by gunmen apparently
belonging to a right-wing paramilitary on October 15, appeared to have
died from gunshot wounds.
Baltimore-based religious charity Lutheran World Relief (LWR) said
Valencia's wife confirmed on Wednesday that the body was that of her
husband and the father of their seven children.
LWR had invited Valencia to speak at a peace conference last
weekend in Chicago but said the U.S. embassy denied him a visa.
The group said it was ''saddened'' to learn of Valencia's murder
but added that his case was not unique.
''Unfortunately, what happened to Orlando happens to many others in
Colombia, and all too often these tragedies go unnoticed,'' said LWR
president Kathryn Wolford.
''Orlando was an outstanding young leader, bringing hope to his
community, working for the dignity and protection of his people, and
his life was needlessly taken.''
TOM FOX
Christian Peacemaker Iraq
The following reflection was written by Tom Fox the day before he was
abducted.
Why are We Here?
By Tom Fox
December 3, 2005
The Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) Iraq team went through a
discernment process, seeking to identify aspects of our work here in Iraq
that are compelling enough to continue the project and comparing them with
the costs (financial, psychological, physical) that are also aspects of
the project. It was a healthy exercise, but it led me to a somewhat larger
question: Why are we here?
If I understand the message of God, his response to that question is
that we are to take part in the creation of the Peaceable Realm of God.
Again, if I understand the message of God, how we take part in the
creation of this realm is to love God with all our heart, our mind and our
strength and to love our neighbors and enemies as we love God and
ourselves. In its essential form, different aspects of love bring about
the creation of the realm.
I have read that the word in the Greek Bible that is translated as
"love" in the word "agape". Again, I have read that
this word is best expressed as a profound respect for all human beings
simply for the fact that they are all God's children. I would state that
idea in a somewhat different way, as "never thinking or doing
anything that would dehumanize one of my fellow human beings."
As I survey the landscape here in Iraq, dehumanization seems to be the
operative means of relating to each other. U.S. forces in their quest to
hunt down and kill "terrorists" are as a result of this
dehumanizing word, not only killing "terrorist", but also
killing innocent Iraqis: men, women and children in the various towns and
villages.
It seems as if the first step down the road to violence is taken when I
dehumanize a person. That violence might stay within my thoughts or find
its way into the outer world and become expressed verbally,
psychologically, structurally or physically. As soon as I rob a fellow
human being of his or her humanity by sticking a dehumanizing label on
them, I begin the process that can have, as an end result, torture, injury
and death.
"Why are we here?" We are here to root out all aspects of
dehumanization that exists within us. We are here to stand with those
being dehumanized by oppressors and stand firm against that
dehumanization. We are here to stop people, including ourselves, from
dehumanizing any of God's children, no matter how much they dehumanize
their own souls.
CPT
Release: We Mourn the Loss of Tom Fox
10 March 2006
In grief we tremble before God who wraps us with compassion. The death
of our beloved colleague and friend pierces us with pain. Tom Fox’s body
was found in Baghdad yesterday.
Christian Peacemaker Teams extends our deep and heartfelt condolences
to the family and community of Tom Fox, with whom we have traveled so
closely in these days of crisis.
We mourn the loss of Tom Fox who combined a lightness of spirit, a firm
opposition to all oppression, and the recognition of God in everyone.
We renew our plea for the safe release of Harmeet Sooden, Jim Loney and
Norman Kember. Each of our teammates has responded to Jesus’ prophetic
call to live out a nonviolent alternative to the cycle of violence and
revenge.
In response to Tom’s passing, we ask that everyone set aside
inclinations to vilify or demonize others, no matter what they have done.
In Tom’s own words: "We reject violence to punish anyone. We ask
that there be no retaliation on relatives or property. We forgive those
who consider us their enemies. We hope that in loving both friends and
enemies and by intervening nonviolently to aid those who are
systematically oppressed, we can contribute in some small way to
transforming this volatile situation.”
Even as we grieve the loss of our beloved colleague, we stand in the
light of his strong witness to the power of love and the courage of
nonviolence. That light reveals the way out of fear and grief and war.
Through these days of crisis, Christian Peacemaker Teams has been
surrounded and upheld by a great outpouring of compassion: messages of
support, acts of mercy, prayers, and public actions offered by the most
senior religious councils and by school children, by political leaders and
by those organizing for justice and human rights, by friends in distant
nations and by strangers near at hand. These words and actions sustain us.
While one of our teammates is lost to us, the strength of this outpouring
is not lost to God’s movement for just peace among all peoples.
At the forefront of that support are strong and courageous actions from
Muslim brothers and sisters throughout the world for which we are
profoundly grateful. Their graciousness inspires us to continue working
for the day when Christians speak up as boldly for the human rights of
thousands Iraqis still detained illegally by the United States and United
Kingdom.
Such an outpouring of action for justice and peace would be a fitting
memorial for Tom. Let us all join our voices on behalf of those who
continue to suffer under occupation, whose loved ones have been killed or
are missing. In so doing, we may hasten the day when both those who are
wrongly detained and those who bear arms will return safely to their
homes. In such a peace we will find solace for our grief.
Despite the tragedy of this day, we remain committed to put into
practice these words of Jim Loney: “With the waging of war, we will not
comply. With the help of God’s grace, we will struggle for justice. With
God’s abiding kindness, we will love even our enemies.” We continue in
hope for Jim, Harmeet and Norman’s safe return home safe.
Isse
Abdi Isse, Chairman of the Kasima Peace and Development Organisation
(KISIMA)
U.N. condemns killing of Somali rights activist
15 Mar 2007 17:53:02 GMT
Source: Reuters
By
Jeremy Clarke
NAIROBI, March 15 (Reuters) - The United Nations condemned
the killing of a prominent Somali human rights activist, calling his death
a loss for all Somalis and warning aid workers they were increasingly the
target of violence in the chaotic country.
Isse Abdi Isse, chairman of the Kasima Peace and Development Organisation
(KISIMA) based in the southern port of Kismayu, was shot dead on Wednesday
by unidentified gunmen during a visit to the lawless capital Mogadishu.
"Isse championed human rights in the region for many
years and his death is undoubtedly a loss to all Somalis," said Eric
Laroche, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia.
"Civil society organisations, such as KISIMA, that
continue to operate in Somalia under very difficult conditions are
increasingly becoming the target of attacks as a result of the work they
do," Laroche said in a statement on Thursday.
Violence has risen in Mogadishu since Somalia's interim
government and Ethiopia's military defeated a rival Islamist movement in a
war over the New Year.
Insurgents are blamed for near-daily attacks on troops and
peacekeepers, and civilians are caught in the crossfire.
Ahmed Kiimiko, head of the Somali Human Rights Defenders
Network, said recent murders of intellectuals, human rights campaigners
and businessmen showed mounting insecurity.
"The situation of human rights violations in Somalia
is worsening when the killings, robbery, kidnapping, creation of
anarchism, raping and subjugation of personal rights have increased,"
he said in a separate statement.
U.N. agencies working in Somalia say more than 40,000
people fled the city in February.
