Letter: Iraq's medicine

Milan Rai
Saturday 23 January 1999 01:02 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Sir: As Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, Edward Said and Howard Zinn point out (letter, 21 January), the US government is currently engaged in legal action against four members of our sister organisation, Voices in the Wilderness US. Each of the four is facing fines of $10,000 or more, and the organisation has been told that it will be fined $120,000. Their crime is to have hand-delivered "medicines and toys" to children's wards in Iraqi hospitals over the past three years without official authorisation.

I travelled to Iraq on a joint US/UK Voices delegation last February to take medicines to children's wards in Baghdad. Our medicines were seized at Heathrow by British Customs, and we were arrested on our return and threatened with prosecution (with a maximum sentence of five years' imprisonment). Despite this, Voices in the Wilderness UK continues to organise sanctions- breaking delegations. We may be voices in the wilderness, but we will not be silenced by government threats.

MILAN RAI

Voices in the Wilderness UK

London N2

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in