VOICES IN THE WILDERNESS CHARGED WITH SANCTIONS VIOLATIONS

International participants in recent Voices in the Wilderness humanitarian relief missions to Iraq have had passports confiscated and face possible prosecution.  Returning to the United States from a January delegation, U.S. military veteran Ellen Barfield had her passport confiscated by U.S. Customs officials and turned over to the Department of State for possible indictment.  The same action was taken against Voices in the Wilderness coordinator Kathy Kelly when she returned from the February delegation that was in Baghdad at the height of the standoff between Iraq and the United States over U.N. weapons inspection.

British participants in the February delegation Milan Rai and Martin Thomas discovered when they arrived in Jordan en route to Iraq that British Customs had removed children's antibiotics from their luggage before they departed London's Heathrow airport.  The men voluntarily answered a summons to appear at Customs House in London on March 18 to discuss their actions and attempt to have the confiscated medicines returned.  Officials arrested both men on suspicion of attempted illegal export and detained them for four hours of questioning.

They were told their crime was failing to apply for an export license.  Rai told his interviewer, "We didn't apply for a license because we were not prepared to accept any moral veto over our attempt to help sick children in Iraq, or any bureaucratic delay."

Kathy Kelly was permitted to apply for a new passport, and a memo on file at the Chicago passport office stated she should be issued it without delay, and with the customary fee waived.  Kelly traveled again to Iraq in May with the Iraq Sanctions Challenge delegation and had no problems at customs upon her return via New York.

For more information, contact Voices in the Wilderness, A Campaign to End the US/UN Economic Sanctions Against the People of Iraq, 1460 West Carmen Ave., Chicago, IL 60640. (773)784-8065; e-mail: kkelly@igc.org

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last updated July 10 1998