Three Presbyterians join relief mission
to Baghdad
Flight of 28 humanitarians defies U.S./U.N.
economic sanctions
by Alexa Smith, Presbyterian News Service
LOUISVILLE -- (11-January-2001) Three Presbyterians
were aboard Royal Jordanian flight 262 when it left New York City last
night, carrying more than $150,000 in humanitarian aid and the first
U.S. citizens to fly into Baghdad since 1991.
The 28-person mission, dubbed the "Baghdad
Airlift," is intended to defy the U.S.-sponsored United Nations
sanctions that have isolated Iraq economically for a decade, by
delivering aid to Iraqi hospitals.
The Presbyterians on the flight are all from New York:
the Rev. Len Bjorkman, a retired pastor from Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery;
the Rev. Edwin Kang, a retired mission associate from the Synod of the
Northeast; and Roger Reid, an elder at Pebble Hill Presbyterian Church
in DeWitt, NY. [Bjorkman is also currently serving as co-moderator of
the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.]
They are joining representatives of other U.S.
humanitarian and religious organizations, most notably Atlanta-based
Conscience International (CI), an organization that fights hunger,
disease, homelessness and human-rights violations around the world.
In Baghdad, the group will work with local medical and
social workers.
The flight was to pick up a contingent of nurses and
doctors in Amman, Jordan, before continuing to Baghdad, arriving on Jan.
12.
"We see ourselves as going to Iraq as an act of
apology and repentance for the role our government has played in
maintaining the sanctions, and also, the suffering," Bjorkman told
the Presbyterian News Service (PNS) as he packed his bags Tuesday
afternoon. "We're trying to say to them, 'We're really
sorry.'"
"And when we come back, we'll do more to end the
sanctions."
Most of those on flight 262 have been working to end
the sanctions for a long time.
Bjorkman's group, the Central New York Committee to
End Sanctions: Let Iraqi Children Live!, has been at it for five years;
it contributed a substantial amount of the money needed to buy the
medicine, school supplies, medical textbooks and eyeglasses that are
stowed on the flight.
This mission is scheduled to mark the 10th anniversary
of the Gulf War of Jan. 16-17, 1991. CI did not seek a U.S. government
permit. The Jordanian government approved the flight without objection,
according to James Jennings, CI's president, who said that reflects a
significant policy change. In recent months, Jennings told reporters,
Jordan's government apparently has made a political decision to support
humanitarian aid to Baghdad. He said this flight, along with similar
flights from a number of other countries, is an important step toward
the complete removal of sanctions.
Other countries also seem to be gradually loosening
the economic noose around Iraq's neck, dropping trade sanctions imposed
in the wake of the Gulf War, including bans on shipments of food and
medicine.
Rick McDowell wrote in the December issue of the
"Voices in the Wilderness" (VW) newsletter that 1,600
companies from 45 countries -- including France, Germany and Italy --
took part in a trade fair in Baghdad in early November. (VW is a peace
organization that advocates for the removal of the sanctions against
Iraq.) Jordan, Dubai and Russia have announced plans to resume
commercial flights to Saddam International Airport in Baghdad; Iraq's
resumption of domestic flights to Basra and Mosul directly challenges
the US/UK-patrolled "no-fly" zone.
Further, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez visited
Iraq last year, as did the foreign ministers of Jordan, Russia and Iran.
Other passengers on last night's airlift include a
former chair of the Child Welfare Committee of the American Pediatric
Association and representatives of the organizations Children's Welfare
Social Work Specialists and Child Disability Rehabilitation Specialists.
Kang told PNS that he was taking part because of
justice commitments he made while living under the Japanese occupation
of Korea.
"My first personal introduction to the dynamics
of oppression in the Middle East was when I went to Israel/Palestine in
1999 and saw what was happening to the Palestinians -- even though the
peace process was supposed to achieve a fair settlement for them as well
as the Israelis," Kang said. "Since the Gulf War, I have been
concerned (about) what has been happening to the people of Iraq under
the sanctions."
Kang noted that a synod committee that he staffed in
1999 passed a resolution condemning the sanctions, and the Presbyterian
Church (USA) approved it during the next year's General Assembly.
"I am looking forward to seeing the conditions
for myself," he said, "and to continuing to bring an end to
this oppression."
Bjorkman, a former missionary in Lebanon, said he saw
the impact of bad U.S. foreign policy there -- policy that served
neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians. He has vehemently protested
the role played by the Georgia-based School of the Americas in U.S.
policy in Central America.
"I do this because I love this country," he
said. "And what we're doing (in foreign policy) will hurt future
generations. There's the possibility of retribution and of simply losing
friends."
Bjorkman said he is aware that Iraq's overall economic
picture may be changing, but he doubts that it has had much impact on
the average Iraqi worker. "The black market is going full steam
ahead. Saddam Hussein has lots of good stuff ... but the people
don't."
From 1996 through 1998, CI trained 500 Iraqi doctors
and nurses in emergency care of children in the Iraqi cities of Basra,
Baghdad and Mosul. More recently, it helped develop a pediatric
cardiology surgery project in Baghdad.
The organization was founded by Jennings in 1992. It
has assisted a number of nations around the globe, including the
U.S.-embargoed countries of Iran, Sudan and Afghanistan.
