By SATYA, TALYA, and KRIYA ONORATO

The Modesto Peace-Life Center has been our extended family for all our lives. We have many cherished memories. In celebration of the Modesto Peace-Life Center's 30th anniversary, we would like to recognize some of the many individuals and events that have made a difference in our lives.

We remember the Peace-Life Center's participation in the Lawrence Livermore Lab protests. We anxiously waited up for our dad to come home after his arrest. We deeply admire the courage of Sam Tyson and others for their stand against the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

We are very grateful to Thelma and Hurley Couchman, who so graciously welcomed us each year for the Friends of Peace ceremony and potluck. We couldn't wait to swim in the Couchman's pool, and our parents had to drag us away at the end.

Peace Camp was another annual event we anticipated. We looked forward to the campfire and finding just the right stick to roast our marshmallows. Special thanks to Gordon Hart, who facilitated the youth program for one Peace Camp. Gordon remained a good sport throughout, even when we lost his keys. Our appreciation to master chef Pam Franklin who prepared many delicious meals. We particularly remember Pam's wonderful biscuits. Finally, to Jim Higgs, who unknowingly volunteered to play "the sap" that ran through the autumn trees during our talent show skit about the seasons. Thanks, Jim, for accepting the role and subsequent teasing with gracious good humor.

The annual Fourth of July Connections fundraiser was also one of our favorite gatherings. Charlie Milligan deserves a huge thank you for his generosity and hospitality in welcoming everyone to his home. Charlie worked very hard each year to make this gathering a success. We always had the best view of the fireworks in Modesto surrounded by family and friends at Charlie's. The other "hero" of these events was master auctioneer Bill Roberts. He was the soul of the Connections auction and the best auctioneer we've ever heard.

Finally, our thanks to Grandpa Willie and Grandma Louise for the summers at Cherry Lake and for the music (Grandpa Willie on the harmonica and Grandma Louise on the piano during the winter holiday party); to Grandpa Howard and Grandma Ruby for letting us swim in your pool and for the wonderful homemade bread; to "the Three Kings" epiphanous mystery person (Sandy Sample) for the delicious apricot bread each year; to the Peace Essay Contest committee and judges for encouraging youth to learn more about peace and justice issues; to Myrtle Osner for her tireless efforts with Connections; and to Jim, Bonnie, Laurie, and Aaron Costello for their friendship.

By INDIRA CLARK

In 1870, Julia Ward Howe called on the women of the world to celebrate Mothers Peace Day. And it was, in locations around the world, for the next two generations.

Mothers Peace Day was revived during the 1980s.

For more than a dozen years, Delta Friends Meeting has a vigil at Lawrence Livermore Lab each Mothers Day. The Lab was chosen as the site of the vigil as it is one of two national research and development facility for nuclear weapons and other ever more exotics methods of warfare and destruction.

Quaker worship is at 10:30 a.m. at the main gate. Bring Mom, food to share for the potluck picnic which follows, and plenty of sunscreen.

ACTION: More information, call 874-2498.

Mothers Peace Day Proclamation 1870
By JULIA WARD HOWE

Arise, then, women on this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
whether your baptism be that of water or tears!
Say firmly: "We will not have great decisions
decides by irrelevant agencies.
Our husbands shall come to us, reeking
with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us
to unlearn all that we have taught them of
charity, mercy, and patience.
We women of one country will be
tender of those of another to allow our sons
to be trained to injure theirs.

From the bosom of the devastated earth,
a voice goes up with our own.
It says, "Disarm, Disarm!"
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
nor violence indicate possession. As men have
often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the
summons of war, let women now leave all that
may be left of home for a great and earnest day
of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to
bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly
take counsel with each other as to the
means whereby the great human family can live in
peace, each bearing after his own time the
sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity,
I earnestly ask that a general congress of
women without limit of nationality may be
appointed and held at some place deemed most
convenient and at the earliest period
consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance
of the different nationalities,
the amicable settlement of international questions,
the great and general interests of peace.

In 1870, Mothers Peace Day was celebrated in cities across the United States as well as Europe, as far away as Constantinopole. Some groups continued the annual events for 40 years.

Since 1984, Delta Friends Meeting has celebrated Mothers Peace Day with a witness for peace at the main gate of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. You are invited to come on Sunday, May 9, with or without your mother, to join in Quaker worship at 10:30 a.m. followed by a picnic lunch.

ACTION: For information, contact Indira Clark, 874-9668.

PEACE ESSAY CORRECTION: The Cara Chittim essay, printed in the April edition of Stanislaus Connections won First Place in Division II (grades 9 and 10). It was incorrectly labeled as the winner of Division I (grades 11 and 12).

Though recent policy changes signal some positive prospects, Peter Lens of the American Friends Service Committee with whom I talked called them "too little, too late." In March of this year, Halliday's successor as Humanitarian Coordinator of UN work in Iraq , Hans Von Sponeck, also resigned in protest.

— Dan Onorato

Children of Iraq (CI): What did you find when you arrived in Iraq?

Halliday: What hits you is the impact of the Gulf War itself, the infrastructural damage caused by the bombing of the Gulf War Allies which is the single greatest cause of the current crisis of mortality and malnutrition. I'm talking about the destruction by Allied missiles and bombs of water supply systems, water distribution treatment centers, the destruction of the capacity to manufacture electric power which is so fundamental for irrigation systems and for sewage systems and for water systems. The breakdown of the sewage system is another crisis, and then water and sewage end up getting mixed up together, leading to appalling waterborne disease problems.

You're also struck by the general dilapidation of the civilian infrastructure—houses, places of work, communications, transportation. The parks in Baghdad are now dry and derelict. One of the few things that does work is children's playgrounds with big signs of Mickey Mouse and Disney.

Despite all that, people are cheerful, they make the best of it, they are in the streets, they're looking after their children—the most important thing in their lives. They're deeply concerned about the future for their children, whether it's education or health or sheer survival and the future of their country and their own lives which have been shattered by this situation.

Professionals are effectively wiped out, the middle class is very hard to find. Baghdad is full of empty suburban houses for rent because the people have literally fled—the intelligentsia, the middle class, the professionals and others have gone. It's an extremely depressing place.

I used to walk down to the souk in Baghdad and I would inevitably get a warm reception, people would want to talk to me, they'd want to buy me tea in the tea shops. They're extraordinary people and they've gone through hell and they're still going through hell. That's the reason why I finally resigned from the United Nations because I had to be free to say what I'm saying to you now which I couldn't have said if I remained a civil servant. So after 34 years I decided to take a dramatic switch and in fact speak against the member States who are perpetuating this crime under the Security Council.

CI: You used the word "crime" which is a strong word. What is the crime that is being committed?

Halliday: The member States of the United Nations are guided by the United Nations Charter and a number of other international conventions, declarations and other statements on human rights. I believe that when the United Nations makes a decision through the Security Council, the results of that decision must be compatible with the provisions of the United Nations charter. This is conspicuously not the case with Iraq. The member States of the Security Council—Britain and the United States in particular—are sustaining an economics policy on Iraq with deliberation knowing full well the horrible impact on the innocent people and children of Iraq. They know full well that economic sanctions are killing thousands and have killed thousands of Iraqi people. And by doing this in the full knowledge of its impact, this is genocide. It's a deliberate decision to crush the people of that country out of sheer frustration because they cannot punish, they cannot get rid of their former ally, President Sadaam Hussein.

This is my great pain, and it's a pain, I think, not just for the Iraqi people which of course is the greatest tragedy. It's also a tragedy for the United Nations. The United Nations is losing ground every day—its integrity, its credibility is being undermined by this situation everywhere, the Arab world, the Islamic world, I think throughout the world. It's a major tragedy and it's going to have to be addressed. The Secretary General said some very good things in his statement the other day opening the 54th session. Unfortunately, he did not address this incompatibility problem. He didn't address the fact that the member States—the five permanent member States—are in fact neglecting or undermining the very spirit and working of the UN Charter themselves. Its a horrendous situation.

CI: Most of the American media tells us that it is the fault of the Iraqi government that the children of Iraq are dying. How would you respond to that?

Halliday: Yes, Washington and London have consistently said, well, it's all the fault of Sadaam Hussein. This is a very easy thing to do—it's a cop-out, of course, and we know that they are frustrated desperately because they have no impact on Sadaam Hussein—he's not really impacted very much by economic sanctions. In fact, it's made him more powerful within Iraq. He's become stronger because when the leadership is attacked, people will rally around, even if they may have some reservations themselves. Outside Iraq, in the Islamic world, among the people, he is much, much stronger so it's totally counterproductive in that sense.

And you know when you look at the history of Sadaam Hussein and you look at the history of the Baath party, the policies of that party and that regime have not been to punish the Iraqi people. On the contrary, it's been a socialist government that using oil revenues introduced health care systems and improved the educational system.

My great frustration is that when Sadaam Hussein was a useful member of society to Washington, London, France, Russia and others, they supported him and they armed him with the capacity to fight the Iranians which, of course, was very convenient for Washington and others. He was armed by Europe and by North America.

We hide behind him because it's easy and convenient, but deep down everybody knows we are responsible for killing the people of Iraq. When I tour this country I tell Americans, "This is the greatest democracy on earth. You are voters, the electorate, you have the power. It is your representatives that are sustaining the policy in your name. Therefore, I'm sorry to tell you folks, you are responsible for the genocide that is unfolding and continuing in Iraq." And it's really a shame, because the American people, I think, don't want this policy.

The Iraqi people are very much like you and me; they have families and parents and young children and cats and dogs and all the anxieties we all have to stay alive and have happy families. The average Iraqi still has a love affair going with the United States—they love American things, the American people, American jeans and hamburgers and Disney. And they're hurting really bad because they know it's a great democracy and they cannot understand why America is punishing them, the people—not Sadaam Hussein, but them, the people.

It's a tragedy for the Iraqi people. They feel isolated, they feel unloved throughout the world. There's no need for this. They've given us through Mesopotamia an extraordinary wealth of knowledge going back thousands of years. They don't deserve this treatment.

They've been demonized along with Sadaam Hussein. But the Iraqis, whether they're Kurds or Shia or Sunni or Christian—and you know there's a large Christian community, there's even a small Jewish community left in Baghdad—they're good people, like you and me, with the same concerns. And they're in a desperate plight, they're losing their elderly parents, they're losing their husbands, their fathers, they're losing their children, and it's totally unnecessary, and it's accomplished nothing.

CI: This newsletter is called "The Children of Iraq" so we want to be most particularly aware of the plight of the children. How would you describe their situation?

Halliday: Ten or fifteen years ago the greatest single health hazard for the young Iraqi child was being overweight—too well-fed, too much fat, too much food. That is dramatically changed to the complete reverse. For infants, life expectancy has been greatly reduced, most of it resulting from the fact that the mother herself is unhealthy and malnourished, anemic and maybe carrying parasites or waterborne diseases. The child, then, is born in a very poor condition, doesn't get properly breast fed because breast feeding, against UNICEF's strong objection, has been discouraged for some strange reason by the government of Sadaam Hussein and therefore they've been using baby formula which has been misused in the sense that it's been overly diluted. In Iraq in recent years it's been diluted with foul water which is extremely dangerous and responsible for many deaths of children resulting in appalling figures of chronic malnutrition which can lead to permanent physical and mental damage. There is malnutrition among probably 30% of the children under five years.

So children are in a very bad state of health care. More long-term, and probably even more difficult to change is the social impact. For example, in the poorer parts of Baghdad children have been taken out of school because the parents need them to go out and make a few dinars to help with the family budget. You see children begging in Iraq in Baghdad and other cities which was apparently unknown ten years ago. I used to bring food with me for children who begged, knowing that they would get the food, whereas the money they'd probably have to pass on. And Iraqis would often stop beside me and angrily shoo the kids away because they were humiliated that a foreigner like me would see this shameful event.

You find children going into petty crime, and in fact violent crime is on the rise in Baghdad and people are getting murdered through robberies and things of that sort, which again was apparently not known in Baghdad.

The tragedy among the really poor is that young girls are now being pushed into prostitution to bring money into the family. There are tales of mothers who are giving themselves to Jordanian truck drivers in order to put food on the table. It's an appalling situation. Homes where they've been stripped bare because the furniture has been sold in order to make a few dinars.

So the impact on the family is tragic and I think a lot of men have just walked away. The "deadbeat dad" phenomenon which we experience has now become a reality in Iraq. Again, this is something I think that would never have happened in the moral, Islamic atmosphere that predominated in the good old days. And they've given up—they can't get jobs, they're unemployed, the bombing destroyed most of the consumer manufacturing plants throughout Iraq—deliberately—and if they're not destroyed then they can't get the raw materials. And if they get the raw materials they can't export the final product. So it's a very bad scene. And men have given up. So women are often abandoned and of course Iraq suffers from a large number of war widows, given the Iraq-Iran debacle, where perhaps a million people lost their lives.

And the educational system, which was extraordinarily effective, probably the best in the Middle East Arab world, has collapsed to a great extent—school systems, school infrastructures, desks, blackboards, even chalk, things of that sort. Worse, perhaps, 10,000 primary and secondary school teachers have quit because they just can't face trying to work without the capacity to deliver a reasonable product. Kids have no books or paper. So you've got a tragedy on every corner.

I think when you move up to teen-agers, this is where it gets even more dangerous because you're getting young people now who see no future for themselves, whether it's education or employment or overseas which might have been the case in the past. They've become alienated from the rest of the world. They feel Iraq is surrounded by enemies. Some of them are moving into politics. I think we are creating in Iraq sort of a right-wing fundamentalist movement which could be very dangerous for us. Government officials in my age range are slightly horrified by the pressure from the younger members of the Baath party who are pushing Saadam Hussein and Tariq Aziz and others into more extreme positions.

So the social impacts are huge, and these are the ones that are much more difficult to change. It's damage across the entire spectrum of Iraqi society, the breakdown of a very strong, very proud people—a sort of pride that I think we in the West don't understand.

CI: What is the situation of health care in Iraq and how would you respond to charges made by the U.S. State Department that the medicines are going to warehouses in Baghdad and they're simply not being distributed for whatever reason?

Halliday: There's a new phenomenon in Iraq and that is that children in particular are now being exposed to diseases and problems that they did not have before. Leukemia and other cancer-related problems have seen a horrific rise and it seems to be directly linked to the use by America of depleted uranium during the Gulf War, the exposure of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi troops who come back and are reunited with their wives and are producing children who are deformed. And the root crops, the water supply systems in the southern part of the country are badly contaminated by depleted uranium residue and the result is horrific. The figures are just stunning and the World Health organization is involved in monitoring this and reporting on it as are the Iraqis.

Secondly, the infrastructure is largely collapsed. Many of the big hospitals in Iraq were managed by overseas companies, including Irish management companies. They went, and many of the nurses went. So you're left with a broken down system, and on top of that many of the Iraqi doctors who are well-trained here in the United States, they also went. And those who stayed find themselves working without the equipment and the support that they were used to having and were trained to work with in the United States.

On top of that there is the problem of supplies. The Ministry of Health is not nearly as efficient as the Ministry of Trade which handles the food distribution systems. They had some problems with early contracting. They put far too many contracts in too many small companies who couldn't produce, for example $3 million of a given medicine. They ran into political problems with the United States, Britain and others through the sanctions committee where sophisticated drugs were being stopped and blocked, whether it was syringes or rubber gloves or anything that could be remotely "dual purpose," that is, could possibly also be used for military purposes—incubators, equipment for hospitals, lab equipment, refrigeration— was blocked by the Security Council.

So they've had huge problems there. The logistical aspect of bringing in medicines at the right time has been problematic—there's no proper computerized inventory system. The World Health Organization is working with them on that. They asked for refrigerated trucks because some medicines cannot be moved without refrigeration. They were denied by the UN Security Council. That may be changing now. They asked for 500 ambulances. I believe they've been allowed to have 200, so there are all sorts of problems of that sort.

On top of that, the Americans play games with them. Often the Iraqis would ask for 10 items in a sort of a package of health care. Nine items would be approved; the tenth item would not be approved. And those who did that knew full well without the tenth item the other nine were of no value.

So the warehouses today are probably inefficiently run, the inventory control is not very effective, the communication of needs from hospitals to warehouses doesn't work very well, the distribution systems don't work because of trucking and refrigeration problems. And then you've got supplies in some of these warehouses which are not what the Iraqis need today. There is a reason for the warehousing of drugs and medicines.

CI: What's the solution? What should people concerned about the children of Iraq do?

Halliday: The only solution is to end economic sanctions and give the Iraqi people a chance to rebuild their lives. Americans need to put pressure on their government to lift the economic sanctions. I've been impressed with how some parts of the American religious community are speaking out on the moral issues involved. People need to listen to them.

CI: What does the future hold?

Halliday: I'm really concerned where we go from here. The only way to solve this is to take a new turn, to go back to the days of living with Saadam Hussein. The world, the United States, has lived with a lot of dictators, military and otherwise. The world is full of people like this and you make the best of it. You don't destroy the country or punish the people because you don't like the leadership.

CI: Thank you, Mr. Halliday.

ACTION: The Peace/Life Board urges all to write at least one letter to an elected representative on this issue. Please don't let Mothers Day pass without contributing your view concerning this shameful tragedy for which our government is mainly responsible.

"The Children of Iraq" may be contacted at 310 Riverside Dr. #511, New York, NY 10025; http://www.childrenofiraq.org/