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(Continuing a Memorial Day weekend 2005 salute to the fallen. The story of Marla Ruzicka always brought to my mind the line from The Lord of the Rings: Those who don't live by the sword can still die upon them. Originally from April 2005, this is another reminder of the price paid by those who would seek to help heal a wounded land; their light shines even brighter against the darkness cast by those who sow chaos and death.)
"In war, innocent civilians should not be hurt. It happens. Now we have to see what to do to help the families that were hurt."
- Marla Ruzicka, founder of CIVIC - the Campaign for Innocent Victims In Conflicts.
Why? Marla again:
"If we are fighting a war against terrorism, terrorism impacts innocent people, so we want to show them that we're against that, and that's why we need to help these families that are so desperate."
Marla's campaign led her to Afghanistan and Iraq, while bullets were still flying and explosions were part of the daily routine. A terrorist killed her last Saturday as she and Faiz, CIVIC's Iraq Country Director, traveled to visit an Iraqi child injured by a bomb. She was 28.
Please take a moment to listen to this NPR report.
In other terrorist news, a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars has suggested it would be a great idea for the US to release those terrorists it has captured thus far in Iraq:
BAGHDAD, April 15 -- A prominent Sunni Muslim cleric on Friday welcomed an amnesty offer for Iraq's Sunni-led insurgency and called on President Jalal Talabani to make it a general amnesty that would also apply to those in U.S. detention.The 'influential' association to which the 'prominent moderate' cleric belongs is thought to be comprised of former regime loyalists, and has long been suspected of close ties to the terrorist organizations in Iraq. Odd that British newspapers aren't afraid to include that fact in their coverage, while the Washington Posts hides it in phrases like The Muslim scholars' group played a leading role in the Sunni boycott of the Jan. 30 national elections.Talabani first aired the idea of forgiveness for guerrillas in his inaugural speech this month. He said Iraq's still-forming new leadership could end the anti-government, anti-U.S. insurgency within months if it reached out to Iraqi members of the resistance while keeping up the fight against foreign insurgents.
Ahmed Abdul Ghafour Samarrae, a moderate cleric in the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, was the first Sunni leader to respond publicly to the amnesty proposal -- and he welcomed it. Calling on the new transitional government to do "something remarkable for the people," Samarrae urged Talabani to expand his proposal to "a general amnesty for all."
Speaking at Friday prayers at the association's Baghdad mosque, Samarrae asked Talabani to launch the amnesty by obtaining the release of detainees in U.S. military custody at the Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca prisons.
(Original post: 2005-04-18 18:41:32)
