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U.S. Activists Embark on "Walk for Peace" Across Iraqi Desert
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| “The
23 million people of Iraq have suffered cruelly for a dozen
years under U.S. bombing and sanctions.” |
AMMAN,
May 21 (News Agencies) - Sixteen U.S. nationals embarked Tuesday, May
21, on a "walk for peace" across Iraq's desert to raise
funds for cancer-stricken Iraqi children and highlight the need to
avert a possible U.S. strike on Iraq, organizers said.
The
group set off from Amman at dawn for the Jordan-Iraq border to prepare
for the grueling 555-kilometer (344 mile) trek to Baghdad starting
Friday, May 17, a statement by the Compassion Iraq Coalition group
said.
The
six-day walk seeks "to dramatize the need for the United States
and the international community to 'go the extra mile' in averting the
all-out war against that country reportedly planned by the Bush
administration," it said.
U.S.
President George W. Bush has called Iraq part of an "axis of
evil" along with Iran and North Korea and hinted there could be a
military attack on President Saddam Hussein's regime, accused of
acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
Bush
is expected to try to win Europe over to his policy on Iraq in a
speech to Germany's lower house of parliament Thursday, May 23, during
his European trip, although E.U. states have warned against hasty
action.
"The
23 million people of Iraq have suffered cruelly for a dozen years
under U.S. bombing and sanctions. It is time to end this failed
policy, not to start a new war," the statement said.
"Washington
readily spends millions (of dollars) on defense, but not one cent for
diplomacy. Why not talk," the statement added, quoting Coalition
leader James Jennings.
The
marchers, including volunteers from a dozen U.S. cities, have received
pledges for every mile walked and proceeds will go to the pediatric
oncology ward at Basra Children's Hospital, in southern Iraq.
The
march will be co-led by members of Voices in the Wilderness, a charity
group active in the United States and Britain in the campaign to end
U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Iraqi
health experts said in February that cases of cancer had increased
dramatically in southern Iraq and linked this to depleted uranium
munitions used by U.S.-led forces during the 1991 Gulf War to end the
occupation of Kuwait.
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