US Civilian Peace Team attempts to block assault on Najaf

Friday April 23, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Please forward immediately to your media lists


U.S. CIVILIAN PEACE TEAM STANDS IN THE WAY
OF PENTAGON'S ATTACK PLAN FOR NAJAF, IRAQ

(Najaf, Iraq) As numerous people from nonprofit organizations working
in Iraq evacuated the country during the past week, an independent emergency
delegation of U.S. civilians was preparing to enter the conflict-torn
nation,traveling to the tense stand-off around Najaf, where the U.S.
military recently deployed almost 3,000 troops for a looming assault to
crush Shiite rebels there.

The Najaf Emergency Peace Team, "Peace Between Peoples", a handful of
determined volunteers from several well-established peace/global
justice/human rights and religious organizations, has now
arrived in the area, to place themselves "nonviolently, symbolically and
physically" between the U.S. armed forces massed nearby and the civilian
population of the ancient holy city - in the way of any American military
assault.

The delegation has received messages of encouragement from religious and
community leaders in south-central Iraq, including an advisor to Ayatollah
Ali al-Sistani. "We understand the dangers of our journey, but we are
determined to try and contribute in our own small way to peace and justice
for the people of Najaf and Iraq. Only when peacemakers are willing to
shoulder some of the same risks that soldiers take in war, can we begin to
move away from the cycle of violence that grips human society at the dawn of
the 21st century," says the group's statement.

Meg Lumsdaine, Peter Lumsdaine, Mario Galvan, Trish Schuh, and Brian
Buckley - of California, New York and Virginia, respectively - are now in
south-central Iraq to carry out their peace mission.

Rev. Meg Lumsdaine is an ordained Lutheran pastor who has previously been
involved in human rights delegations to Latin America and Iraq. Peter
Lumsdaine is coordinator of the Military Globalization Analysis Project and
organizer of the Najaf delegation. Mario Galvan, a high school teacher, is
a national board member of Peace Action, with 100,000 members throughout the
U.S., and a founding member of the Zapatista Solidarity Coalition. Trish
Schuh co-founded the Military Families Support Network in 1990 and was
involved in Military Families Speak Out. Brian Buckley is a carpenter and
member of the Little Flower Catholic Worker community.

The Najaf emergency delegation can be contacted for interviews and more
information by e-mail, as their peace witness and nonviolent challenge to
the U.S. military assault plan unfolds in the days ahead.

[Contact the delegation through: mariogalvan44 [at] hotmail.com - or find us in
the Najaf area April 24 to April 30, and possibly beyond.]