Home > Programs
> Democracy
Now! > Thur., Apr. 21, 2005
Democracy Now!
ATTN: ALL STATIONS
From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 4-21-05
PRSS Channel: A67.7
Remembering Humanitarian Aid Worker & Activist Marla
Ruzicka
Haiti's Aristide Calls For His Restoration to Power
U.S. Funding Iraqi Militias Led by Baathists As Part of Counter-Insurgency
Operation
Remembering Humanitarian Aid Worker & Activist
Marla Ruzicka
On Saturday 28-year-old Marla Ruzicka was killed in a car
bombing. She was the founder of the Campaign for Innocent
Victims in Conflict. Since the launch of the so-called war
on terror, Marla spent most of her time in Iraq and Afghanistan
documenting and recording the casualties of war. Memorial
services are planned for this weekend to remember the life
of 28 year-old humanitarian aid worker and activist, Marla
Ruzicka. She was killed in Iraq last week by a car bomb on
one of Baghdad's most notorious roads. Her longtime Iraqi
partner, Faiz Ali Salim, also died in the blast. Ruzicka was
the founder of a group called Campaign for Innocent Victims
in Conflict, or CIVIC. Since the launch of the so-called war
on terror, Marla spent most of her time in Iraq and Afghanistan
documenting and recording the casualties of war. The day after
the fall of Baghdad, she began a door-to-door investigation
of civilian casualties in Iraq and formed survey teams to
fan-out across the country and gather first-hand accounts
from Iraqis. She continued going into Iraq even after most
international aid organizations and relief agencies had pulled
out. Marla took her first report to Democratic Senator Patrick
Leahy of Vermont who in turn sponsored unprecedented legislation
to provide millions of dollars to Iraqi civilians wounded
by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The road Marla and Faiz were killed on is the same one Iraqis
have to travel on to speak with US forces and to apply for
compensation. In her online journal, Marla wrote last year
"The ride is not pleasant. Military convoys passing every
moment. Faiz and I hold our breath. Such convoys in that area
are the target of rockets and fire from the resistance. It
would be nice if there was a more secure location for Iraqis
to seek compensation." Marla was fond of saying that
numbers do count, despite the Pentagon's claim it does not
keep records of civilians killed by US forces. As Tommy Franks
- the former head of US Central Command - famously said "we
don't do body counts." The week before she died, Marla
may have been on the verge of proving that statement false.
She had reportedly obtained information from the U.S. military
about the number of civilians killed or injured during the
violence after Bush declared the end of major combat operations.
She was trying to get the U.S. government to publicly release
these statistics about all areas of Iraq. A memorial service
will be held for Marla on Saturday in her hometown of Lakeport,
California. This week she was remembered on the floor of the
Senate by, among others, Sen. Patrick Leahy.
- Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi blogger and architect. His blog
"Raed in the Middle" is at raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com.
He worked as the director of Iraq Survey with Marla Ruzicka
to collect personal information of thousands of wounded
Iraqi civilians. He joins us on the line from Amman.
- Tim Rieser, aide to Democratic Senator to Patrick Leahy
of Vermont. He worked closely with Marla Ruzicka to help
set up a special fund in last year's foreign aid bill to
help compensate the civilian victims of the US invasion.
Haiti's Aristide Calls For His Restoration to Power
We hear excerpts from a rare public appearance by ousted
Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. We also talk to
Rep. Maxine Waters and Kate Orlovsky, student director at
the Hastings Human Rights Project for Haiti. The group has
just filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights on behalf of Haiti's former Prime Minister Yvon
Neptune. Ousted Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide held
a rare press conference Tuesday in South Africa where he is
living in exile. He maintained that he is still the elected
president of Haiti despite being ousted 13 months ago in what
he calls a modern-day kidnapping in the service of a coup
d'etat backed by the United States. During the press conference,
Aristide addressed the continued violence and repression in
Haiti.
- Jean-Bertrand Aristide, ousted president of Haiti speaking
at a news conference in South Africa on April 19, 2005
Meanwhile, law students at the University of California,
Hastings, along with Haitian and U.S. attorneys, have filed
a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
on behalf of Haiti's former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune. Neptune
was jailed in June 2004 and has yet to see a judge in his
case.
We are joined on line now by one of the students who filed
the petition, Kate Orlovsky. She is the Student Director of
the Hastings Human Rights Project for Haiti. And in our Washington
DC studio, we have Democratic Congressmember Maxine Waters
of California.
- Kate Orlovsky, Student Director at the Hastings Human
Rights Project for Haiti.
- Rep. Maxine Waters, Democratic Congresswoman from California.
She was part of the delegation of US and Jamaican lawmakers
that flew to the Central African Republican in March 2004
to return President Aristide to the Caribbean.
U.S. Funding Iraqi Militias Led by Baathists As Part
of Counter-Insurgency Operation
We talk to Arun Gupta of The Indypendent on the proliferation
of illegal militias in Iraq. The U.S. government is not only
aware of these militias but is arming, training and funding
them for use in their counter-insurgency operations. We are
joined in our studio by Arun Gupta who has been reporting
on the proliferation of militias in Iraq. Arun is an editor
with the New York City Independent Media Center's newspaper,
The Indypendent.
He writes in his article, "Let
A Thousand Militias Bloom" that the U.S. government
is not only aware of these illegal militias but is arming,
training and funding them for use in their counter-insurgency
operations. His article will be in the May issue of Z magazine.
The article begins:
In devising a strategy to defeat Iraq’s insurgents,
the Pentagon may be gaining the upper hand but at the cost
of pushing Iraq toward civil war. A report by the Wall Street
Journal from Feb. 16 revealed that “pop-up militias”
are proliferating in Iraq. Not only is the U.S. aware of these
illegal militias, but the Pentagon is arming, training and
funding them for use them in counter-insurgency operations.
Most disturbing, one militia in particular – the “special
police commandos” – is being used throughout Iraq
and has been singled out by a U.S. general as conducting death
squad strikes known as the “Salvador option.”
Greg Jaffe, the Journal reporter, identified at least six
such militias. Yet these militias owe their allegiance not
to the Iraqi people or state, but to their self-appointed
leaders and associated politicians such as interim Prime Minister
Iyad Allawi. Even the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle
East, Gen. John P. Abizaid, admitted to Congress on March
1 that such militias are “destabilizing.”
Of these militias, at least three are linked to Allawi. Jaffe
writes, “First came the Muthana Brigade, a unit formed
by the order of… Allawi.” The second is the Defenders
of Khadamiya, referring to a Shiite shrine on the outskirts
of Baghdad, which appears to be “closely aligned with
prominent Shiite cleric Hussein al Sadr,” who ran on
Allawi’s ticket in the January elections.
- Arun Gupta, former editor of The Guardian, one of the
most respected independent newspapers in recent U.S. history.
He is currently an editor with the New York City Independent
Media Center's newspaper, The
Indypendent.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
|
Listen
to the show
Help
whole
show
