I am a 62-year old grandmother of Aboriginal and European descent and a human rights lawyer, based at the April 7 Water Treatment Plant, situated by the banks of the Tigris River where it passes through Baghdad.
I have given birth, and remember the passion and joy of bringing new life into the world. In all my days I never thought that such a thing that we are now facing could ever happen. The planned invasion of Iraq, and the massive bombing campaign which will accompany it, is now unfolding. The rights of nations and peoples, enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, are being trampled on. As jet bombers go screaming overhead, dropping bombs causing mass destruction, remember the children of Iraq.
Despite the threats of mass bombing, I will stay, and stand with the people of Iraq. I will defend with my life the rights of peoples and nations to freedom from invasion, freedom from fear, freedom from war.
The April 7 Water Treatment Plant processes water for three million people, more than half the population of Baghdad. The International Committee of the Red Cross also has a presence there. The Red Cross is producing thousands of litres of especially purified water for use in the hospitals of Baghdad, which in turn take in patients from all over Iraq.
If this site is bombed, it will be a war crime, a clear violation of international humanitarian law. Bombing the water treatment plant would cause many thousands of deaths, from people being left with no alternative but to drink unsafe water. Little children, with their tiny bodies, are most vulnerable to water-borne diseases. Thousands of children would die.
Please do what you can to stop this war. If the Australian government of John Howard will not listen to the people, then it has betrayed the principles of democracy on which it was elected, and become a dictatorship. Civil disobedience, including industrial action, is the only thing that will stop John Howard from sending in Aussie pilots to bomb us.
In love and peace, and if necessary, sacrifice.
