VOICES UNSILENCED

In July Voices in the Wilderness, an organization of American peace insurgents formed in 1996 to deliver medicines to the Iraqi people in defiance of a US/UN embargo, faced the reckoning in a federal district court. Since 1996 some seventy Voices delegations have traveled to Iraq to protest US rules barring the export of medicines. The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control finally cracked down and sued the group to collect a $20,000 fine it imposed in 2002. Voices’ lawyers asked in court why it took so long to levy this penalty, which covered actions taken in 1998. Was the fine, levied days after Voices supporters participated from Baghdad in a worldwide protest against the impending war, political retaliation? Voices’ lawyers also accused the OFAC of selective enforcement because it had done nothing about US oil companies’ violation of the sanctions regime. Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of VITW, told us: “We’re 102 percent certain the judge will rule against us, and expect the ruling anytime between now and six months from now.” She said the group will continue to refuse to pay the fine, a civil penalty (see www.vitw.org).