Peace Outreach and Activism
Since the imposition of economic sanctions in Iraq in 1990, children began dying in increasingly large numbers each month due to a lack of adequate food, clean water and medicines. In 1995, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations issued a report entitled, "Evaluation of Food and Nutrition Situation in Iraq." In it, team members from the UN/FAO Mission to Iraq wrote that " 567,000 children in Iraq have died as a consequence of economic sanctions." A team of medical doctors also documented their findings. The FAO report and articles on the situation were printed in a book entitled, The Children are Dying (published by World View Forum and available through The International Action Center) in 1996.
This tragic situation motivated members of the International Peace Project to work to make the situation known to more and more people. It was thought that if more people became aware of the truth of the situation, pressure could be brought to bear on United States policy makers to end this genocidal policy. The International Peace Project was one of many groups (including Voices in the Wilderness, the International Action Center, and others) across the country making efforts to reach out to help.
The International Peace Project produced a series of television programs of interviews and lectures by prominent human rights and peace activists on topics related to the Iraq humanitarian crisis, and later about U.S. foreign policy in Yugoslavia.
The spiritual dimension of peace "activism" was also presented in interviews and lectures by Shaykh Abdoulaye Dieye of Senegal.