WLOE
e-news: 30 April 2004
Women in war zones - Iraq, Rwanda, Israel; Asia Pacific women on World Bank
land policy; Chernobyl legacies; marching and voting for peace - USA
Life and death, and afterwards:
on the ground in Iraq
Jo Wilding of Voices
in the Wilderness reports on the effects of war on women, children, families
http://vitw.us/weblog/archives/000697.html
For information and links from our site on the costs of war:
http://www.womenandlife.org/WLOE-en/information/peace/iraq.html
Women of
Rwanda: marked for death
amnesty international campaign in support of women victims
"The legacy of
genocide and war in Rwanda lives on ten years after the events in which as many
as one million lost their lives.
Between April and July 1994, Rwanda was the site of a horrifying litany of human
rights abuses - mass killings of unarmed civilians, rape and numerous other
acts of torture. Bringing to justice those responsible has been an enormous
challenge; even so, progress has been slow. For those raped or tortured, or
whose family members were killed, justice and redress remain elusive.
The United Nations estimates that between 250,000 and 500,000 rapes were committed
during the genocide. Degradation was integral to the physical violence, with
some women being made to parade naked or perform various humiliating acts at
the bidding of soldiers and militia..."
For more information, photos, see:
http://web.amnesty.org/actforwomen/rwa-070404-action-eng
Take action! Please write to the
President of Rwanda, urging him to face up to the challenge of providing redress
to survivors of rape and other victims of the genocide and crimes against humanity.
All information is at:
http://www.womenandlife.org/WLOE-en/action/alerts.html
Urgent message from Jerusalem:
"We have to wake people up."
Israeli peace activist Gila
Svirsky writes:
"I just spoke to Molly Malekar on her way to the hospital from a demonstration
in Bidu, and here is what she reported:
'We were about 60 women, only women: roughly 1/3 Israeli, 1/3 Palestinian,
and 1/3 internationals. We gathered at Bidu to protest the construction of
the wall in this village. It was a quiet march, with women carrying signs and
walking toward the area where soldiers were guarding the construction of the
fence. At a distance of about 10 meters (30 feet) from them, we stopped walking
because the soldiers turned to point their rifles directly at us. I called
out to them in Hebrew, "Don't shoot, we're not armed, this is a nonviolent
demonstration." Suddenly there was an onslaught of tear gas and stun grenades,
falling all around us, completely out of proportion to the quiet, nonprovocative
nature of our action. The grenades fell right there at our feet and we were
choking, unable to breathe...'
Read full report, "Anarchy in our Souls" at:
http://www.womenandlife.org/WLOE-en/information/peace/gs250404.html
For information on the wall under construction, and many links to sites
from Israel/Palestina:
http://www.womenandlife.org/WLOE-en/information/peace/middle-east.html
Asia
Pacific Women Say No to World Bank Land Policy
"On 17 April 1996, twenty one landless agricultural workers were brutally
murdered by the military policy in the Brazilian state of Para, when staging
a struggle for land.
17 April has become a Day of Peasants Struggle and Solidarity for justice, land
and dignity. It is the day of struggle against the policies which alienate land
and productive resources from women and men peasants, small farmers, fisherfolk,
Dalits, indigenous peoples; take away sources of their livelihoods and push
them down into deeper poverty..."
Download the 2-page statement at:
http://www.apwld.org/pdf/Peasants_Statement_17_April.pdf
See this site as well for a good report on the "People’s Caravan 2004 for
Food Sovereignty: Asserting our Rights to Land and Food"
http://www.apwld.org/people_caravan.htm
Nuclear
catastrophe at Chernobyl: 18th anniversary
There is no end to an atomic accident: radiation released continues to contaminate
and kill. For information on women and atomic power:
http://www.womenandlife.org/WLOE-en/information/ecology/energy.html
Do visit a site mentioned
there and here, made by a young woman who documented her motorcycle trips through
the 'ghost town' that was once a booming center of atomic power:
http://xpda.com/junkmail/junk153/chernobyl/
April 25, Washington,
D.C. : March for Women's Lives
For reports on this herstoric
event, plus a calendar of events around the march themes and issues see the
organizers' website at:
http://www.marchforwomen.org/
CODE
PINK also reports:
1,150,000 women marched for
their lives on April 25th "clad in hot pink," Monday's LA Times front page article
reported. Demonstrators came from across the US and other countries in the largest
march in history.
http://www.codepinkalert.org/National_Actions_March_For_Choice.shtml
From: Women's e-News: Pro-Choice
March Largest in History
04/25/04, by Allison Stevens, WeNews correspondent
..."Brandishing a white coat hanger, comedian
Whoopi Goldberg kicked off the afternoon rally with a vow to never to return
to the days of back-alley abortions that prevailed before the Supreme Court
legalized abortion in 1973. "This was the choice," Goldberg said as she held
up the hanger.
"This was it. And I'm here to tell you, never again. We are not going backwards
child, never again."
A sea of faces stretched more than a mile, from one end of the national mall
to the other. Under an overcast sky, the dozens of lawmakers, celebrities and
political organizers looked out at them and issued a collective call to restore
and preserve women's health and reproductive rights.
... While avoiding partisan politics, one speaker after the next warned that
the anti-choice leaders who control the White House and Congress will pay a
political price in this fall's elections for restricting the access of women
in the United States and around the globe to abortion and reproductive health
services. They portrayed the Bush administration's anti-abortion and abstinence-only
policies as steps toward an ultimate goal of outlawing abortion and dramatically
reducing the availability of contraception..."
Read
full article at:
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1805/context/cover/
Women and Elections: USA
African American Women's Vote Key in 2004
By Luchina Fisher, WeNews correspondent
"Black women tend to vote Democratic, but as presidential election politics
heat up, Republicans are hoping to make inroads in this key voting bloc. (WOMENSENEWS)--With
a presidential election that is shaping up to be close, black women are poised
to play a decisive role. The Democratic Party is home base for many, but the
Republicans are trying to lure them over. At the same time, many younger African
American women prefer to register as independents."...
... "African American women are the base of the base of the Democratic Party,"
-- Daniella Gibbs, deputy communications director for the Democratic National
Committee.
See article: http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1766
For more information:
National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Inc.: http://www.bigvote.org/unity04/campaign/index.htm
"Unity ‘04 Civic Engagement and Voter Empowerment Campaign is a nonpartisan
network of 130 organizations that are united to increase the Black vote in the
2004 election cycle and build a groundswell of civic participation in the Black
community..."
For more information on
women's voting and voter registration in the USA, from V-Day ("Vote to
end violence") and Granny D. at:
http://www.womenandlife.org/WLOE-en/action/alerts.html
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