The Remembering Omran Bus Tour stopped at Duke last night to present its case for lifting sanctions against Iraq. The two-hour talk, led by speakers Rania Masri, a United Nations representative from the Arab Women's Solidarity Association, and Simon Harak, a Jesuit priest, introduced HIWAR, a new Duke organization focused on political and social injustice in the Middle East and North Africa.
Freshman Yousuf Al-Bulushi, co-founder of HIWAR, hoped the organization's first event would inform students about both the club and the issues regarding U.S.-Iraq relations. "People don't know the influence our government has in that part of the world," Al-Bulushi said. "It's important for students to be informed."
As part of their three-day speaking tour at the Triangle's universities and churches, Masri and Harak took turns alternating between logical and emotional appeal, making no attempt to conceal that they hoped to persuade the 50-person audience. Harak, who is also a former ethics professor, petitioned the audience to join him on the group's next trip to Iraq, showing film segments of the dying people and destroyed landscapes and narrating the images with powerful stories from his visits.
The group he travels with, Voices in the Wilderness, formed about five years ago "in open defiance of the sanctions." They bring sanctioned materials like toys, medicine and pencils to Iraqi children, an act to which the United States government has responded with threats of fines and prison sentences.
"If I were to fly planes over Iraq and drop bombs, I would be a hero," he said. "But when I bring toys and medicine, I get threatened.... I would hope that after hearing this that at least one student from this room will join me in my next trip."
In contrast to Harak's emotional appeal, Masri gave arguments about every part of the issue, from whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction to the media's distribution of "disinformation." She stressed that Saddam Hussein is not the same as Iraq and that the sanctions are hurting real people.
"The media tells us that Iraq equals Saddam equals weapons of mass destruction," Masri said. "What it doesn't tell us is that sanctions themselves have killed half a million children under the age of five."
According to Masri and Harak, sanctions do not hurt Hussein, nor do they protect the security of the region. They argued that sanctions have built an Iraqi citizenry that thinks even Hussein is too lenient and that the U.S. is the aggressor in the situation. "The sanctions don't make sense at all unless their objective is the destruction of Iraq as a nation and the killing of the Iraqi people, so that we-I mean Shell and Chevron-can control their oil," Masri said.
The speakers challenged the audience to think about these issues, get involved with HIWAR and rival the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's political activism. "In Arabic, Hiwar means a serious dialogue, which I am hoping its members will engage in," Masri said. "UNC is definitely the most progressive school in the area, but Duke University has the intellectual ability to rival them. HIWAR will hopefully will lead to that."
Now that HIWAR's first sponsored event is completed, Al-Bulushi says that he and the other members will refocus their energies on advancing the new group. "We put the advancement of the club aside for a while to get this event scheduled," he said. "We're about 20 now, but we would like to grow to as many people as are interested."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.