[R-G] Former Bethlehem human shield, US activist, off to Iraq

[ProletarianNews]

AP. 21 September 2002. Young American Heads to Iraq to Document
Potential U.S. Attack, Draw Attention to Iraqis.

CHICAGO -- At age 25, Nathan Mauger has seen much of the world -- and
been kicked out of some of it. He was banned this year from Israel, the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip for delivering food and medical supplies to
Palestinians who'd occupied the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Now the young peace activist from Spokane, Wash., is off to Iraq.
Despite strong disapproval from the U.S. government, Mauger and six
other members of an American "peace team" are positioning themselves in
Baghdad in case of a U.S. attack there.

Mauger plans to stay "indefinitely" to report the stories of Iraqi
citizens for newspapers and television stations in his home state, using
video and audio equipment he's bringing along.

He's not an apologist for Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein. But Mauger and
others in Voices in the Wilderness, the Chicago-based group organizing
the trip, believe the suffering of the Iraqi people has not been
highlighted enough. They oppose a U.S. attack and want an end to sanctions.

"The goal is to humanize Iraq because it is a nation of human beings,"
Mauger said last week before leaving for Iraq. "There are 25 million
people; it's not just Saddam Hussein."

Relief groups say life for the average Iraqi is difficult at best.

Contaminated water has created an epidemic of dysentery and infectious
diseases, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths. UNICEF says Iraqi
children younger than age 5 are dying at more than twice the rate they
were before the sanctions.

At least one U.S. official called the peace team's concerns for the
Iraqi people "valid."

"It's just that we don't feel anything's going to change by ending
sanctions or making it easier for Saddam," said Gregg Sullivan, a
spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
"This is a guy who's not a force for alleviating human suffering in the
world. He's a force for exacerbating it."

Neither that argument, nor the $10,000 fines imposed on some activists
who've gone to Iraq in recent years without U.S. government permission,
sway Mauger.

He knows many Americans deplore what he's doing. He also concedes that
the Iraqi government is "as horrible as people say" and admits he's more
than a little frightened.

He says it was his experience studying abroad in the West Bank -- seeing
death and destruction firsthand -- that turned him from a "mainstream
liberal" college student to peace activist.

"When you see a war happening in front of you, with people you care
about caught in the middle, you don't forget that," he said. "It changes
you. It changed me."

In Bethlehem, Mauger was among a group of Palestinian supporters, called
the International Solidarity Movement, who tried to bring food and
supplies to Palestinians holed up inside the Church of the Nativity on
May 2. Ten made it inside; Mauger and a dozen others didn't and were deported.

Mauger, who's awaiting a journalism degree from Washington State
University while credits transfer from his Chinese language studies in
the West Bank, made the comments last week at a Chicago apartment that
is part office for Voices in the Wilderness, part living quarters for
its volunteers. He joined the group two months ago after being released
from an Israeli prison and returning to the United States.

As he packed Wednesday, Mauger listened to music through headphones,
while recording two CDs. They are among the only personal possessions he
took with him.

Mauger left Chicago's O'Hare International Airport Thursday for Iraq via
Jordan with two large duffel bags in tow -- most of them filled with
medical journals, donated clothing, vitamins, children's pain reliever
and cough syrup and a few packages of magic markers to give to kids.

The team expects to be in Iraq by Monday. Eventually, Mauger plans to
settle into a Baghdad hotel and volunteer at a hospital.

Adly Natsheh, a 21-year-old Palestinian who met Mauger while both were
students at Washington State, said he realizes Mauger's cause may be
unpopular here. But he calls his friend "my American hero."

"There are few people in the world like him," Natsheh said.

"I'm hoping for the best," Mauger said, "But expecting the worst."

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ProletarianNews
http://www.utopia2000.org

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