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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Pushing for peace, ISU demonstrators live like refugees |
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by Scott Richardson, Pantagraph
(No verified email address) |
30 Oct 2001
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"No one wants to sound unpatriotic and say what our country is doing is wrong... But bombing stops relief efforts." |
NORMAL -- Sarah Bailly grew up in a comfortable three-bedroom home in a solid suburban neighborhood near Chicago.
But her home last night was a makeshift campsite on the campus of Illinois State University.
A senior majoring in psychology, Bailly and others will live in the "village" overnight tonight as part of a two-day fast led by the ISU Peace and Justice Coalition.
Relief delay cited
The purpose is to draw attention to the plight of an estimated 2 million Afghans living in refugee camps. Many have been displaced for years because of wars within Afghanistan, but the United Nations estimates 80,000 Afghans also have fled their homeland since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In addition, the U.S. bombing, now in its fourth week, has stymied relief efforts inside Afghanistan, Bailly said. The ISU coalition says as many as 7.5 million Afghans are nearing starvation as winter approaches and U.N. figures show an estimated 400,000 Afghan children could die because of cold and malnutrition.
"We know there are millions of people who are living in these conditions every day," Bailly said of the replica of a refugee camp set up Monday afternoon at ISU.
"Kids (on campus) like to complain they don't have enough money, that their apartments are too small. But, it's a whole lot better than it could be," she said. "No one wants to sound unpatriotic and say what our country is doing is wrong... But bombing stops relief efforts."
The ISU coalition supports defining the search for Osama bin Laden and his co-conspirators as a police action rather than a military one. They agree that bringing the people responsible for the terrorist attacks to justice is right and necessary.
Alternatives sought
However, Ryan Canney, a graduate student in politics and government, said any search for an effective reaction to Sept. 11 will be "an imperfect search." While some action must be taken against terrorism, raining bombs on civilians is not it, he said. Thirteen civilians, including children, were killed in U.S. air raids in Afghanistan over the weekend, according to official Afghanistan sources.
"Let us look for other responses," Canney said.
"We are not suggesting there is an easy solution," added Manfred Steger, an ISU professor of government and politics. "What we suggest is that we take 48 hours to reflect on a course of action."
Maher Bages, a former U.S. Marine corporal, veteran of Desert Storm and ISU graduate student in politics and government, thinks sentiment is growing in America to examine other alternatives.
"I sense in the U.S. people are saying, 'O.K., it's been three weeks. We are the world's richest nation bombing the world's poorest. But we are not seeing results,' " Bages said. "And the people paying the price are noncombatants. They are not directly involved at all."
Money that participants in the fast would have been spent on food during the two days will be contributed equally to victims of the World Trade Center and Pentagon and to relief efforts for the Afghans.
Events during the fast, which ends at noon Wednesday, include "drumming for peace" at 7 p.m. today followed by a candlelight vigil with the Bloomington-Normal Citizens for Peace and Justice. |
