wfn.org | 3 Presbyterians join relief mission to Baghdad

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Note #6329 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

11-January-2001
01009

3 Presbyterians join relief mission to Baghdad

Flight of 28 humanitarians defies U.S./U.N. economic sanctions

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE -- 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
Bjorjman, 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.

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," Bjorjman 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.

Bjorjman'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 aesolution
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."

Bjorjman, 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."

Bjorjman 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.

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