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Members of the US families announcingdonations they raised for the Fallujahrefugees (AFP)

An Iraqi family with relief supplies in Fallujah

Bereaved US Families Share Iraqis Agonies of War

By Adam Wild Aba, IOL Correspo ndent

WASHINGTON, January 4(IslamOnline.net) – With pictures of their smiling marine sons in theirwallets and memories about the goodold days always vivid, bereaved U S

families wrapped up last week a visit t oIraq in protest at the Americanoccupation and in solidarity withthousands of Iraqis displaced by the USmonster firepower.

Californian Rosa Suarez del Solar and her Husband Fernando, whosemarine son died in Iraq in March last y ear, led the grief-strickenfamilies, anti-war activists and fa milies of 9/11 victims in their soul-searching tour, which kicked off on December 26.

And they were unified by a comm on gr ound: A strong determinationto expose the US administration of George W. Bush and itsmisleading everything is going OK clich és to the entire world.

“We lost our son to an illegal war that is now destroying the lives of thousands of Iraqi children,” Fern ando said. “We, as parents, mustsay ‘Stop the killing, comfort the children.'”

In addition to Rosa and Fernan do, the delegation also includes Jeffrey

Ritterman, of Physicians for So cial Res ponsibility, Jodie Evans, co-founder of CodePink: Women f or Peac e, Medea Benjamin, co-founderof Global Exchange and CodePi nk, and Hany Khalil, a nationalorganizer for the group United for Peac e and Justice.

The organizations sponsoring th eir tour are CodePink, ProjectGuerrero Azteca for peace, Glo bal Exch ange, the Middle EastChildren's Alliance, Physicians f or Soci al Responsibility, Peace Action,United for Peace and Justice, a nd Voic es in the Wilderness.

They secured diplomatic courte sy letter s from US Senators BarbaraBoxer of California and Raul Gr ijalva of Arizona and CongressmenDennis Kucinich of Ohio and Henry Waxman of California.

Fernando said had it not been for the help of the two congressmen,their tour would have not seen the light due to obstacles laid by thePentagon.

Fallujah Aid

Feeling for thousands of Iraqis killed andmade homeless by the US military

juggernaut, they raised US$600,000 worthof humanitarian aid to the refugees of thewar-torn city of Fallujah.

In an Internet appeal, they raised overUS$100,000 in donations from Americans,who found it hard to buy the sweet-talk of their administration and joined the anti-waralliance.

“Your donations have provided thousands of cold, grieving refugees, especially children,with blankets, sweaters, heaters, portablestoves, clean water and antibiotics,” the group thanked thebenevolent in a CodePink’s online statement.

At least 2,000 Iraqis and 71 US soldiers were killed in a sweeping USraid into Fallujah in November, which displaced some 200,000 people

and turned the city into a virtual ghost town.The refugees started returning to their “uninhabitable” homeland lastmonth, facing new draconian US police measures with their fingerprints taken and their retinas scanned. They were further forced towear special ID badges.

Cluster Bombs

Fernando said he believed it when he saw unexploded cluster bombsscattering across vast swathes of Iraq.

He said the tennis ball-like bombs threaten the lives of thousands of Iraqi children, who innocently used to sift through the debris and therubble of their destroyed homes.

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International aid agencies had said that hundreds of Iraqi civilianswere maimed after tampering with the bombs with children makingmost of the victims.

Britain’s The Observer published last year a map showing vast areasof the occupied country at danger from live munitions.

The 12-person delegation met with Iraqi doctors, human rightsworkers, and families hurt by the occupation.

In Jordan, they were banned by authorities from holding a candlelitvigil outside UN headquarters on December 31.

“We are all very upset because we had done similar protests all over

the world. We're very shocked,” Benjamin told Agence France-PresseAFP.

As they were heading home, the families sang in unison, “All we aresaying, is give peace a chance.”

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