american fined for bringing medicines to Iraq

Press Release

For Immediate Release Contact: Kathy Kelly 773-447-3964

June 11, 2002 Voices in the Wilderness 773-784-8065



American fined $10,000 for admitting to bringing medicines to Iraq

Press Conference to be held at 10:00 am, Monday, June 17, 2002 at the National Press Club, Zanger Room, 13th floor, 529 14th Street NW, Washington, DC

Washington, DC--Seattle resident Bert Sacks, the first American to be fined by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for his admission that he brought medicines to Iraq, will hold a press conference on June 17, 2002 to display samples of medicines he has carried to Iraq and announce his intent to continue nonviolently resisting the UN/US economic sanctions against Iraq.

In what appears to be the first case of its kind, OFAC has imposed a $10,000 fine on Bert Sacks. Sacks says he will not pay the fine and will elaborate on his reasons at the Press Conference. June 17 marks the last working day within the 30 day period which the US Treasury Department and OFAC have allotted as a response time before they will attempt collection and add penalties.

Mr. Sacks traveled to Iraq with a delegation of four from the Chicago-based group Voices in the Wilderness. In December 1998, the Treasury's OFAC threatened the entire group with fines totaling $163,000. However, this is the first time an actual fine has been imposed, and only on Mr. Sacks.

Returning in late May from his eighth trip to Iraq, Bert Sacks explained his position: "I have seen the children of Basra, ill and dying because of unsafe water. How can I ask the government which deliberately bombed civilian infrastructure during the Gulf War -- knowing it would create conditions of unsafe water and doing so as a tool of coercion -- how can I ask this government for permission to bring medicines to those still in need?"

Kathy Kelly, co-founder of the group Voices in the Wilderness, will attend the Press Conference. Kelly, who has traveled to Iraq 15 times, says that the sanctions regime represents one of the greatest injustices of our time, having brought starvation and disease to millions of innocent Iraqis. “The recent UN Security Council Resolution endorsing so called 'smart sanctions' won't solve the economic and social catastrophe facing ordinary Iraqi citizens," said Kelly, describing it instead as a grim perpetuation of a failed policy. "We will continue resisting economic warfare by sending delegations to Iraq and, if need be, taking up residence in Iraq in advance of and during any new massive military assault against Iraqi civilians."

Peter Lems, of the American Friends Service Committee, will have returned from Iraq days earlier. He is expected to attend the Press Conference and speak of what he has just seen on his fact-finding trip.

All three cite the paper from the U.N. Subcommision on Human Rights: "The sanctions regime against Iraq is unequivocally illegal under existing international humanitarian law and human rights law. Some would go as far as making a charge of genocide." Bert Sacks says, "Given this finding, I am morally and legally obligated NOT to obey U.S. laws which violate international law." He also notes, "If I'd received a $100 traffic ticket, I'd be entitled to a hearing before a judge, but with this fine of $10,000, I am not."