Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice
730 Tappan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104 (734)663-1870

May-June 1999 Newsletter:

• Hague Delegates Report - June 3
• News of Our ICPJ Staff
• Religious Leaders Seeking Justice
• ICPJ Statement on Kosovo
• Risks and Dangers from Nuclear Power Plants
• Nuclear "Prohibition" - What Will It Take?
• The Case Against Sanctions in Iraq
• Bishop Gumbleton Talks with Local Clergy
• City Council Resolution on Iraq
• The Problem of Debt: We Are All Captives
• The Living Wage: Building A Fair Economy
• Nile Harper Book Signing - May 25
• 1999 Unity Rally for Racial Justice Speech
• Guatemalan Truth Commission Rpt. and SOA
• Jennifer Harbury Visits Ann Arbor
• Peace InSight

Interfaith Council has also helped EMELYNE BAHANDA to attend the conference. She is a law student in San Francisco and has founded an organization CONGO HOPE to work on constructive non-violent ways to rebuild Congo.

Please welcome Vickie Wellman as our new part time office staff. She has been doing lots of office organizing, computer systems updating and generally helping us all out. Vickie has been actively voluteering here at ICPJ for about a year now. She is a Peace Team member, an avid organic gardener, baker, biker, and very interested in living simply and non violently.

Congratulations to Barbara Fuller, who received a well-deserved award from Michigan State University on April 14. She was named as recipient of the 1999 Glen Taggart Award for Community Contribution to International Understanding. The award was presented in the Annual International Awards Assembly of MSU�s International Studies and Programs

Russ Fuller will be out of the office for several weeks and Barbara�s schedule may get adjusted somewhat, as Russ recovers from heart surgery done April 20. Following a valve replacement and three by-passes, he is recuperating at home. By the middle of the month he can likely take calls at home, and Barbara may be doing more of her work from home for a period. If you need to come to the office during her usual morning hours, you may want to check to make sure Barbara is in. If not, you should feel free to call her at home (663 0473).

 Thank You!

The tragedies of Kosovo are much in our minds, and obviously deserve real attention. ICPJ�s current task forces are already overloaded in work with other issues. But if you and others agree in principle with the Statement on Kosovo adopted by ICPJ's Steering Committee (page 3) and want to work to help address the Kosovo situation, call the office (663-1870) and offer your help. If enough people are eager to help and we can find staff support time, we will call a committee together.

Two years ago ICPJ�s Racial and Economic Justice Task Force joined its voice with that of religious leaders in the greater Detroit area in calling on Detroit�s newspapers to act with justice and honor in dealing with its workers. Now, four years after the strike began, the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press continue to resist serious attempts to resolve outstanding issues.

In 1997 an administrative law judge found the papers guilty of 10 of 12 unfair labor practices and ordered them to take back the locked-out workers. Last September the National Labor Relations Board announced a unanimous ruling that the newspapers were guilty of nine of ten unfair labor practices charged against them. The papers filed for a reconsideration. This March both Republican and Democrat members of the NLRB found the papers guilty in a second unanimous vote. But the management has refused to obey the judgments against them and uses appeals to delay any settlement.

This Spring religious leaders will attend the shareholders meetings of both Gannett and Knight-Ridder. Until a just settlement is reached and workers are returned to their jobs, they urge a continued boycott of both newspapers and are now mounting a boycott of USA Today, flagship of the Gannett group. In May, the Detroit Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church will take up a Call to Witness for Workplace Justice At The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press: An Economic Boycott of USA Today.

THE STEERING COMMITTEE OF THE INTERFAITH COUNCIL FOR PEACE & JUSTICE has followed with dismay and horror the vicious acts of "ethnic cleansing" which the Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) is carrying out against its citizens of Albanian heritage in Kosovo; and, on the other hand, the bombing in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by NATO forces, involving sizable contingents of our nation�s military personnel and equipment, as well as the dominant voice of our government in NATO decision making.

Our hearts are torn by the plight of hundreds of thousands of refugees, driven from their homes and facing catastrophic need, by the heavy burden this now places on poor nations who have received them, and the demands on unprepared and overwhelmed international agencies which must minister to them. It is clear to us that the policies now being followed by our own government and its NATO allies are not contributing toward the forging of a meaningful resolution of the conflict and suffering in the Balkans.

We believe that the failure to find a negotiated, peaceful settlement of the conflict there is due to a number of circumstances, including the following:

�the escalation of the level of violence and other violations of human rights over an extended period;

We believe that peace in Kosovo and the FRY will be realized as the residents are given the opportunity to engage in the resolution of the issues which have become barriers to peace with justice. We stand with the people of good will in the FRY and in other nations who seek peace and reconciliation.

Therefore we wish to convey to the appropriate bodies our earnest concerns:

We call upon friends and supporters of ICPJ to work within their various faith communities and organizations to increase understanding of the causes behind the conflict and the current plight of all peoples involved, and to take their own actions in advocating a more sane policy and in providing humanitarian aid; and

We call upon the citizens of Washtenaw County to open their hearts and give generously to help the various humanitarian agencies which are helping the victims who suffer from this conflict.

Recognized Agencies Receiving Donations For Kosovo Refugees

The following agencies have good avenues for working with both area and international agencies in the Balkans:

• American Friends Service Committee, 150l Cherry St. Philadelphia PA 19102 (888) 588 2372
• American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, 711 Third Av., 10th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10017 (212) 885 0832
• Catholic Relief Services, Box,17090, Baltimore, MD 21203 (800) 736 3467
• Church World Service, 28606 Phillips St., P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515 (800) 297 1516
• Lutheran World Relief, Box 6186, Church St. Station, New York, N.Y. 10277 (800) 597 5972
• OXFAM America, Kosovo Relief Fund, 26 West St., Boston, Mass. 02111 (800) 77-OXFAM

Anabel Dwyer spoke on March 23, 1999 to an audience organized by ICPJ on the dangers of nuclear power plants. She is an attorney from Lansing and Washington, DC and Director of Restoring the Nuclear Free Great Lakes Basin (RNFGLB) initiative. Most of us are in agreement regarding the overwhelming dangers from nuclear weapons. Also the disposal of nuclear waste looms as a grave problem unforeseen and unplanned for by the great engineers of the nuclear race. At the other end of the spectrum is the presence of nuclear research facilities, like the Phoenix Laboratories at the University of Michigan, whose products for medical uses and scientific knowledge pose relatively small risks and can possibly yield large benefits for humankind.

Between these two extremes of horrible risks and scientific benefits exists the hundreds of nuclear plants around the world. There seem to exist great differences of opinion among us peace activists about these. We should view these plants as a worldwide problem rather than merely a national situation, because the risks can transcend boundaries, as Chernobyl showed; also because the materials are transported internationally, as we know. Canada was the first country to mine uranium, and remains the world�s largest producer and international exporter of uranium. Countries buying Canada�s uranium must promise not to use it for weapons. But there is evidence that some of this uranium still finds its way into bombs. The temptations to break those promises even when there is a treaty seems to be too powerful for some countries. It seems to be too difficult for governments to build a firewall between nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons. The latest governments to build bombs surreptitiously have been India and Pakistan. But there were others, like Israel, who did or tried before them or who are doing that now.

The possible theft or transfer of nuclear materials for nuclear weapons is the chief danger of nuclear power plants. It can be done by countries and it may perhaps be done by terrorist groups or criminal gangs. How great these dangers are, and how feasible safeguards are against those dangers is debated by experts and by concerned citizens like us. And we should debate those issues.

In addition to the above main dangers, nuclear power plants pose at least four other kinds of risks. First there are risks of contamination for workers in the power plants - and for their families and friends. Second, there are risks from the emissions and exhausts in the air and water surrounding the nuclear power plants. Third, there are risks from accidents, like those of Three Mile Island and at Chernobyl. "Human errors" can be reduced, but have ways of reappearing where you least expect them. Finally, what is to be done with the nuclear wastes routinely generated at these plants?

The Union of Concerned Scientists is a good general source in Washington (1616 P Street, Washington, DC 20036).

Great Lakes Basin Project Prepares for the Hague Appeal for Peace Conference
�by Anabel Dwyer of Restoring the Nuclear-Free Great Lakes Basin Project

Reports on the Restoring the Nuclear-Free Great Lakes Basin project will be part of workshops in the Disarmament section of the Hague Appeal for Peace Conference (HAP). Help is still needed to make those HAP workshops as productive as possible.

In the U.S., nuclear production, weapons and waste are pervasive and embedded in the society in many ways. Identification and verification of nuclear sites in the U.S. illuminates the dangers, harms and terrible waste of money, and will greatly assist in making a nuclear abolition treaty a reality.

We are working to produce an accurate map and guide on all the nuclear sites in the Great Lakes Basin. The map and guide will be useful for many workshops and actions if it is updated and accessible.

You can contribute to the Restoring the Nuclear Free Great Lakes Basin Map and Guide for the HAP conference by:

1. Help document and verify a specific nuclear weapons, production or waste site and write a paragraph (with backup longer description) on your site visit to include in the Map and Guide. (Call Alan or Odile Hugonot-Haber at 761 7967 for specific information)

2. Collect $300 to update the list of Michigan corporations that make parts for nuclear weapons or dual use weapons. The updated list will be incorporated into the map and guide.

The Restoring the Nuclear-Free Great Lakes Basin project operates through the Lansing Area Peace Education Center and cooperates with a wide number of peace, justice and environmental groups in the region. For more information or tax deductible contributions:

Within ICPJ we agree that NOW is the right time to reduce nuclear weapons. I believe US and Russian arsenals are the biggest threat and reducing them in a cooperative fashion should be the first step toward the safer world we desire for humanity. Even in the nuclear weapons community it is felt that the threat from third parties is of a totally different scale and can be ignored in considerations of reducing the US / Russian threat. It is a part of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) that arms control progress is expected from the US and Russia. I believe it follows that with significant nuclear arms control progress with by the "overkill twins", the world will find it easier to monitor and stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Many people with different agendas and world views will have to be brought into the act if we (the US and the Russians) are to make progress in this first and crucial step. For this reason I consider it important that we choose carefully our rhetoric so that we can obtain the largest possible coalition.

Here are a set of discussion points which I see as critical to success.

1. The first priority should be a triad of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), a limit of 1000 for strategic weapons and de-alerting these weapons. This means getting the Duma and the Senate to ratify the CTBT and perhaps skipping to START III. We may need to do strange things to get down to 1000. Wild suggestions have been made such as, giving more financial aid to the Russian weapons community for clean up. Making a deal with the Russians to build a limited but joint ABM system on Russian soil against the N. Koreans. This would be purely to buy the cooperation of US Senate Cold Warriors. The ABM system probably won�t work and the N. Koreans will probably fold or agree to have us help them before they develop a system against which an ABM system might have some spiritual value. ( see latest FAS bulletin. ) There is a new twist to the old Cold War nightmare of hair trigger alert for launching nuclear weapons. With the Russian systems collapsing in near free fall, we may have a blind Russian Bear with its claws on the launch keys of 1000 ICBM�s. Should we help Russia keep functional early warning systems? We need to work out systems and agreements to keep both of us off panic alert.

2. What took 50 years to build will take many years to undo. I hope less than 50! The technical tasks are not significantly less challenging than those of building the bombs and delivery systems, but the monitoring and decommissioning is much less glamorous. I wouldn�t bet on a psychological transformation (in 2 years) of the essential participants in steps towards mutual disarmament, therefore we should plan on an orderly step wise program to reach the long term goal. We have hard work ahead of us.

3. Decouple the talk of no nuclear energy from the work toward reducing nuclear weapons. I would rather succeed in reducing nuclear weapons than lose while holding aloft a flag of purity for some ideological position. Many of the technical people who will be needed in our coalition against weapons and who will be critical to put the weapons to rest and monitor for clandestine bombs are not willing to abandon nuclear energy yet. Some energy strategies can be used to dispose of the enormous amounts of bomb quality material. I myself am about equally frightened by the pro- and the anti- sides on the nuclear energy issue. Let�s choose a winning strategy where we can work together and focus on reducing nuclear weapons.

4. It may be necessary to have a long term goal. but it should be plausible and not a red flag. In the technical community, many feel that prohibition sounds better than abolition. The nuclear genie won�t go back in the bottle. Many Cold Warriors don�t want to hear of abolition until they are convinced the Russian threat is diminished. And vice versa with the Russian conservatives. The path to a long term goal is harder to envision, so we shouldn�t trumpet such a goal if it gets in the way of the critical short term steps of de-alerting and reducing the US and Russian weapons.

Both the Michigan Senate and House are once again taking up legislation that would make it easier for people to obtain concealed weapons permits. The proposed legislation would require the permit-issuing body to issue a permit to someone unless the issuing body can demonstrate why that person shouldn't receive a permit. Under the current system, a person must demonstrate a legitimate need for a concealed weapons permit.This has resulted in few permits being issued under the current system. Many more people would be carrying concealed weapons if the new legislation is passed.

Hague Appeal for Peace -- Dates to Remember

• May 6 - 5:30 pm Ann Arbor City Hall Lawn (5th/Huron) Local Delegation Send-off Celebration
• May 11-15 Hague Appeal for Peace Conference
• June 3 - 6:30 pm 1st Presbyterian Church, Potluck and Delegation Report on HAP Conference

The Case Against Sanctions in Iraq - An Insider's View
by Denis Haliday, Former Head of Oil for Food in Iraq

THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1999 IN THE SEATTLE TIMES EDITORIAL/OP-ED SECTION.

For eight years the UN, under pressure from the US, has subjected the people of Iraq to the most draconian sanctions regime in modern history. And what does Washington have to show for it? Intensified political extremism in the Ba�athist regime. Further violations of international law, including the principles of sovereignty and human rights as enshrined in the UN Charter. And the impoverishment of a once-prosperous and cultured society.

Economic sanctions are a catastrophe�humanitarian and political. There are alternatives. The US has the power to promote stability in the Middle East. But first we must undo the damage done by sanctions.

And for that we must look back to the 1991 Gulf War. In violation of the Geneva Convention, coalition forces destroyed Iraq�s civilian infrastructure. They bombed water and sewage systems, electrical plants, bridges, hospitals, schools. In 1991, then Secretary of State James Baker warned Iraq, a newly emergent industrial society, that it would be bombed back to a "pre-industrial age." In many respects this occurred.

After the war economic sanctions were imposed, ostensibly to compel Iraq�s disarmament. In theory sanctions hurt a country�s rulers while sparing its people. The exact reverse has happened in Iraq. While sparing the Ba�athist regime, the economic sanctions target the most vulnerable: the elderly, the poor, and the very young.

The toll on children is especially deadly. Over five thousand under fives die each month due to sanctions, according to the World Health Organization. Children die from such easily treatable conditions as diarrhea and dehydration. What is more, UNICEF estimates that over 30% of Iraq�s children under five are chronically or acutely malnourished. They will be physically and mentally stunted for the rest of their lives.

In the name of the international community, UN economic sanctions are destroying an entire generation, an entire society.

It may sound too dramatic to call this systematic destruction genocide. But what better word is there? The UN Security Council knows full well the dimensions of the tragedy unfolding in Iraq�even if the American people do not.

The UN oil for food program, which I oversaw, was designed to ameliorate the humanitarian crisis. The program is strictly monitored. There is simply no evidence that funds or supplies are being diverted by the ruling circles.

The program cannot significantly reduce the catastrophic levels of disease, malnutrition, and premature death in Iraq. The chain of fatality originates with the shattered civilian infrastructure, which will take Iraq many years and many billions of dollars to rebuild. For this reason, the Administration�s proposal to lift the ceiling on the oil for food program amounts to an empty public relations exercise.

Yes, Saddam Hussein is responsible for unspeakable human rights abuses. Let us not forget, though, that the Ba�athist regime maintained a quality educational and public healthcare system.

Many Iraqi adults have been educated in the West or traveled abroad. Indeed, many of the Iraqis I met enjoy a love affair with America. This affection could be useful down the road, when foreign relations resume with Iraq, as realpolitik dictates they someday must.

But we may meet a new hostility. Over 40% of the Iraqi population is under the age of 15. This generation knows of America only through the Gulf War and its support for the sanctions regime. They have grown up cut off from the outside world. With no hope for a normal life, they understandably are growing more alienated and resentful.

Indeed, the conditions of their upbringing strike me as frighteningly similar to those which have given rise to the ferociously reactionary Taliban movement or to European fascism after the first World War in Europe.

The consequences of Iraq�s isolation are already manifest in the younger members of the Ba�ath party. They want to break with all aspects of UN presence in their country, and have Iraq go it alone. The continued humiliation of the Iraqi people may produce a political entity whose extreme nationalism will make the current leadership appear moderate.

So what are we to do?

• Drop all non-military sanctions. This will not be �rewarding� Saddam Hussein. By allowing people to focus on something other than sheer survival, it will enable the professional middle classes to contemplate political change. Stop delaying or denying Iraq access to books, medical journals, pencils, and papers, as the UN Sanctions Committee, dominated by the US and the UK, has repeatedly done. Flood Iraq with all the opportunities to enjoy Western culture. Then perhaps participatory democracy will have a chance to emerge.
• Retain all controls over arms sales and transfers to Iraq. Expand arms control and disarmament to the entire Middle East. This will not be an easy task. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council are responsible for 85% of the world�s arms sales. But it is a necessary one if these countries are to trade and cooperate.
• Acknowledge UNSCOM�s successes. It destroyed vast amounts of biological and chemical weapons materials. But after 8 years and thousands of inspections, we must accept that we are not going to find everything. And disarmament is too important a process for it to become politicized and open-ended. We know how easy it is to make these appalling devices. When Saddam Hussein used them before, it was with the blessing of the US.
• Now Iraq is surrounded by much more powerful neighbors, all armed to the teeth. Regional states may bristle at Saddam Hussein�s verbal attacks, but what evidence exists to show they actually feel threatened? Even Iran, which waged a long, deadly war with Iraq in the 1980�s, has called for an end to the bombing and sanctions.
• Engage in intelligent diplomacy. Drop support for self-appointed opposition leaders in exile whose chief constituents are a handful of Western politicians. The Iraqi people have to determine their own fate. They are smart, tough, and resilient. Why deny them rights we would never deny ourselves?

DENIS J. HALLIDAY IS A FORMER UN ASSISTANT SECRETARY-GENERAL AND UN HUMANITARIAN COORDINATOR IN IRAQ. AFTER 34 YEARS SERVICE, HE RESIGNED FROM THE UN IN PROTEST OVER THE HUMANITARIAN COST OF ECONOMIC SANCTIONS.

Bishop Gumbleton Talks With Local Clergy About the Sanctions in Iraq

Pictured from left to right: Farouq Shafie, Bill Thomson, Bishop Gumbleton, Rev. Greg Smith, and Barbara Fuller.	Bishop Gumbleton speaking to local clergy at Bethlehem UCC on April 19.

Resolution Commending Bishop Thomas Gumbleton�s Challenge To the Sanctions On Iraq
Unanimously Passed by Ann Arbor City Council, April 5, 1999

WHEREAS, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit and distinguished humanitarian, has embarked on an effort to deliver medical supplies to the people of Iraq, and

WHEREAS, Hospitals in Iraq are currently unable to provide antibiotics, anesthetics, dialysis or even aspirin to millions of people who are in desperate need of these basics, and

WHEREAS, The policy of sanctions against Iraq by the United States government and the United Nations has resulted in the deaths of one and one-half million Iraqi civilians, mainly children, due to lack of food and medicine over the past eight years, and

WHEREAS, The policy of sanctions unjustly victimizes the population of an entire country, especially children and the elderly, and

WHEREAS, Bishop Gumbleton will be speaking on "The Human Costs of the Sanctions on the Iraqi People" on Monday, April 19, 1999 at the First Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED That the Ann Arbor City Council salutes the humanitarian efforts of Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and welcomes him to Ann Arbor on April 19, 1999. We commend his challenge to the genocidal policy of sanctions and join him in urging the immediate end to this policy.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED That the City Clerk send this Resolution and the four pages of background information to our United States Congress Member, United States Senators, and the United States President.

Submitted by Councilmembers Tobi Hanna-Davies, Jean Carlberg, Heidi Herrell, and Pat Vereen-Dixon.

BREAD FOR THE WORLD, the Christian citizens� movement working to help reduce hunger, joins the worldwide JUBILEE 2000 campaign (see opposite page) with BFW�s 1999 Offering of Letters campaign. Any person or congregation can join this appeal to our nation�s decision makers in advocating related legislation. Interfaith Council has a copy of the Offering of Letters kit and video, and lots of other pertinent information about world hunger. Or you may contact Bread for the World: 1100 Wayne Ave, Suite 1000, Silver Springs MD 20910/(301) 608-2400. E-mail: bread@bread.org. http://www.bread.org

(additional information will be added by next week. webmaster, 5-5-99. )

JUBILEE 2000 is a worldwide, interfaith movement to cancel the crushing international debt of impoverished countries by the new millennium. The Jubilee 2000/USA Campaign grew out of a project of the Religious Working Group on the World Bank and IMF. For more information, check at our ICPJ office or with your religious body. Or, you may contact the effort at 222 E. Capital St., N.E., Washington, D.C. 20003-1036/ (202) 783-3566. E-mail: coord@J2000USA.org. Web side: www.j2000usa.org 

The Living Wage: Building A Fair Economy
by Russ Fuller

Even after the 1997 increase, our country�s minimum wage for full-time work falls 19% short of keeping a family of three above the poverty level, and 37% short of keeping a family of four there. The growing movement to shift from the current minimum wage level to a "living wage" is based on this reality.

Robert Pollin, co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute and Stephanie Luce, formerly an economist with the US. Department of Labor, make the case in a new book published by New Press and entitled The Living Wage: Building a Fair Economy. It is recommended reading for those working on the campaign for a living wage in Washtenaw County.

In reviewing the book for The Christian Century, Philip Chmielewski, a professor of Christian ethics at Loyola University of Chicago, says that supporters of the living wage see it as a way to help working people meet the needs of raising a family by increasing their earned income and spending power, giving them greater access to loans and credit and better health care. But he also states that the authors "carefully note how business would benefit from a living wage."

Chmielewski feels the book also makes a solid case for the ways in which cities would benefit. He points out that the costs of the current practice of cities in giving tax abatements to businesses have not been adequately assessed. The book�s authors make the case that cities might better attract businesses with "the synergy promised by a densely populated location, a sustaining infrastructure, a range of public amenities, and a broad and skilled labor force." The results not only sustain the workers but benefit businesses and help to revive cities.

Tuesday May 25th, 4 - 6 pm Nile Harper Reception and Book Signing Shaman Drum hosts a reception to celebrate the publication of Nile Harper's Urban Churches, Vital Signs: Beyond Charity Towards Justice (Eerdmans). Dr. Harper's book argues for a reconsideration of the relationships among churches, social services, and the poor. More locally, the publication of Urban Churches, Vital Signs is part of the inauguration of a religious coalition for affordable housing. Dr. Harper will be speaking about the book and about this coalition at 4:20 pm and 5:20 pm. Please join us. 311-315 South State Street / Ann Arbor / 734.662.7407 http://www.shamandrum.com ACADEMIC, SCHOLARLY, LITERARY, AND INDEPENDENT, SINCE 1980

17 months ago, I was sued.

A woman named Barbara Grutter sued me, as the Dean of the University of Michigan Law School, because she did not get in. She wanted to be a member of our class of 2000. She got to the waiting list. But she did not get in. And so she sued us.

The university is defending me in this law suit.

And this fall, we are scheduled to go to trial.

Ms. Grutter is represented by a law firm named CIR that specializes in class action suits on behalf of white people who don't get admitted to universities. The CIR lawyers claim that it is unconstitutional for universities to do what we do. When we decide whom to admit to our school, we place a positive value on having a racially integrated student body.

It is important that I say at the outset that, as a matter of law, the CIR lawyers are wrong. In 1978 a majority of the Supreme Court said that it is perfectly consistent with the Constitution for a university to do what we do. That holding, the Bakke holding, is still good law. And because it is good law, we will prevail.

The CIR lawyers have made this lawsuit a class action. They say that 1000 white applicants were harmed by our admissions policy. But [that] can't possibly be right. The reason why those 1000 white applicants didn't get in is that we had only 339 seats in that entering class. 78% of those seats went to other white applicants. Only 25 of those seats went to African American students that year. If we were to try to squeeze those 1000 class members into the 25 seats occupied by African Americans, each seat would have 40 people sitting in each others' laps.

300 years of chattel slavery and 100 years of de jure segregation left our country enfeebled. The changes in our legal order that were brought about in 1954 and 1964 were not enough to make that history irrelevant.

At the end of the millienium, racial integration in America still does not happen by accident. Housing in America is hypersegregated by race. Wealth, opportunity, education, and preparation for law school are not distributed colorblind in America in 1999.

Because we don't have enough seats for everyone who might be able to do the work, we have to allocate them.

And part of how we allocate them is to promote diversity within our school. Because it's easier to learn how to be a good lawyer if you are interacting with people who are different from yourself. Everyone who attends our law school is better off if we are diverse.

And so we look for diversity of talents. Diversity of experiences. Diversity of undergraduate majors. Diversity of state and city and urban/rural background. And we look for diversity of race.

There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that our society would better be served if we had chosen to run our admissions office on a color-by-numbers basis. And there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that we would all be worse off.

I say to Barbara Grutter and the other 1000 members of the plaintiffs' class, I am sorry you were not able to come to Michigan. But our commitment to racial integration is not the reason why you did not get in. Maybe among the 1000 one can find a handful who would have gotten in if we did not care about diversity. But my best estimation is that, if we had chosen to admit them instead of the students we did admit, all 340 students who enrolled in that class would have been worse off, and their future clients would have been worse off. Because we would have failed to provide the best education we can. That is why we are committed to maintaining an integrated law school at the University of Michigan. An integrated law school that reflects the differences that race continues to make in American society. An integrated law school whose graduates might help us to transcend those differences in the century to come.

In the next year, our vision will be tested in court. And we shall prevail. 

The newly released Guatemalan truth commission report singled out the controversial US Army School of the Americas (SOA) for its counter-insurgency training that "had a significant bearing on human rights violations during the armed conflict."

The SOA, now located at Ft. Benning, GA, played a key role in the training of Guatemalan military personnel and the military intelligence apparatus that orchestrated the genocide campaign against Guatemala's Mayan civilian population. This "Scorched Earth" policy of kidnappings, torture and murder left 200,000 dead during Guatemala's 36 year civil war.

A separate 1998 human rights report released by the Guatemala Archdiocese Humans Rights Office also linked the SOA to the civilian-targeted genocide campaign. The 1998 document cited SOA graduates for some of the most notorious human rights violations, including the murder of anthropologist Myrna Mack, the cover-up of the murder of US citizen Michael DeVine, and the torture and murder of Efrain Bamaca, husband of US lawyer Jennifer Harbury. The Archdiocese report also named SOA graduates as top leaders in the fearsome Guatemalan military intelligence agency (D-2 or G-2) which both reports cite for horrific abuses. Both reports concur that paramilitary groups were to blame for a large percentage of the 42,000 human rights violations. SOA graduate Benedicto Lucas Garcia masterminded the creation of the paramilitary Civil Patrols responsible for some of the most brutal violations of the war.

The US Army School of the Americas was established in Panama in 1946 and moved to Ft. Benning, GA in 1984. Graduates of the School have left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where they have returned. Rep. Joseph Moakley's bill HR 732 will close the SOA. Sen. Durbin has just introduced a companion Senate bill. Please call or write Congress and the President!

Please call your Representative and Senators! (202) 224-3121

Lynn Rivers and Debbie Stabenow are already supporters of Rep. Moakley's bill to close the SOA. If your Representative is any one else, please urge him/her to co-sponsor the bill, HR 732.

Urge your Senators--whether you're in Michigan or elsewhere--to support Sen. Durbin's Senate bill, S 873, to close the SOA. Senators Levin and Abraham need to hear from us!

Please call President Clinton! (202) 456-1111

Challenge the President to initiate an independent Truth Commission to investigate US involvement in the genocide in Guatemala and similar civilian-targeted warfare throughout Latin America.

A local delegation of 50 people just returned from Washington DC where they joined religious leaders in a nationwide Vigil to close the SOA. Local delegates included ICPJ President and former Maryknoll missioner to Latin America Mary Anne Perrone; pastor of Northside Presbyterian Church Rev. Chuck Booker-Hirsh; former ICPJ president Rebecca Kanner; Ann Arbor Peace Team Coordinator Sheri Wander; Overseas Development Network student leader Joel Heeres; EMU Political Science professor Rich Stahler-Sholk; Amnesty International student leader Abby Schlaff; SOLE (anti-sweatshop students who sat-in President Bollinger's office) leader Joe Sexauer; AGENDA co-editor Patricia Townsend; St. Joseph Catholic Community members Jim, Mary & James Kalafus; Attorney Kurt Berggren; former ICPJ Steering Committee member Helen Simon; Women's International League for Peace & Freedom members Lee & Phil Booth; Church Women United member Arlene Huff; and 20+ more! Please call them directly or call ICPJ, 663-1870, if you would like one or more of them to speak to your congregation, class or group.

Thank You

ICPJ is used to working with donated, secondhand equipment. Fortunately we have some really great friends!

Most recently we are grateful to have a Mac Quadra 630 computer given us by Q, Ltd.�thanks to ICPJ�s longtime friend there, Tom Rieke. It comes with a monitor and some helpful software, and gives us a whole new capacity in the office.

And, thanks to Jim Sweeton, we are reconfiguring all of our equipment, getting computers into a helpful network and making the best use of what we have. When the work is done, we will be back "on line" for e-mail as well. And with Vickie Wellman�s help, we have a "new" (reconditioned) and much faster printer!

Dear Representative (Senator)__________,

On March 10, President Clinton made a public apology to the people of Guatamala. "We are determined to remember the past," Mr. Clinton said, "but never repeat it." His apology for U.S. support in the Guatamalans' genocidal campaign of the 1980's was prompted by the release of the Guatamalan truth commission report. This report criticized the U.S. role in providing support and training for counter-insurgency activities that led to human rights abuses.

However, in spite of Clinton's apology, the U.S. continues to fund the controversial U.S. Army School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, GA, where Latin American soldiers receive training in combat skills, sniper fire, etc. The truth commission report singled out the SOA for its counterinsurgency training that "had a significant bearing on human rights violations during the armed conflict." The school played a key role in the training of Guatamalan military personnel and the military intelligence apparatus that orchestrated the genocide campaign against Guatamala's Mayan civilian population.

While abuses by the military may have ended in Guatamala, they continue in Colombia and Mexico, major clients of the SOA today. As recently as 1998, Colombian SOA graduates were involved in the murder of human rights workers.

Representative (Senator), please take advantage of Mr. Clinton's recent words and urge him to close the SOA, a Cold War dinosaur that only thwarts U.S. efforts to establish a new kind of relationship with Latin America.

Furthermore, please let me know if you plan to co-sponsor Rep. Joe Moakley's (Sen. Richard Durbin's) bill, HR 732 (S 873), to close the School of the Americas.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Harbury Visits Ann Arbor

Jim Kalafus, Tobi Hanna-Davies, Joe Rivers, and Mary Anne Perone with Jennifer Harbury. (photo: Gregory Fox)

Ms. Harbury, speaking at the U-M Business School Auditorium, holds up a picture of her husband, Efraim Bamaca (Everardo), whose torturers received US taxpayer dollars (Photo: Gregory Fox).

2 of her books are available at ICPJ: "Searching for Everardo" ($20) and "Bridge of Courage: Life Stories of the Guatamalan Compañeros and Compañeras" ($12)

Peace InSight  --   Cable Channel 9 -- May 1999
Tuesday 7:00 pm, Friday 6:00 pm, Sunday 2:00 pm

Live Call-In   Thursday 5/6 9:00 pm Recablecast Mon. 5/10, 5:00 pm
Hosted by Thom Saffold. Tune in and CALL IN!!!

Tues. 5/4 7:00 pm, Fri. 5/7 6:00 pm, Sun. 5/9, 2:00 pm
"The Religious Right & Its Impact on the State Legislature"
KARY MOSS, Michigan ACLU executive director, discusses current issues. Sponsored by the First Unitarian-Universalist Church Jackson Memorial Fund,
3/28/99

Tues. 5/11 7:00 pm, Fri. 5/14 6:00 pm , Sun. 5/16 2:00 pm
"Social Security Reform Town Hall Meeting"
Federal representatives Lynn Rivers, Mick Smith, plus representatives from the Concord Coalition and the AARP present Social Security reform ideas being discussed in Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the Ann Arbor Jaycees at WCC Morris Lawrence Building,3/29/99

Tues. 5/18 7:00 pm, Fri. 5/21 6:00 pm , Sun. 5/231 2:00 pm
"Journey of Hope: Murder Victims' Families Oppose the Death Penalty"
Family members share their stories and explain why they oppose the death penalty. There is talk in the Michigan Legislature about implementing the death penalty here, where it is prohibited in the State Constitution.

Tues. 5/25 7:00 pm, Fri. 5/28 6:00 pm, Sun. 5/30 2:00 pm
"Denis Halliday & Phyllis Bennis: Stop Sanctions Against Iraq"
Denis Halliday, who resigned his UN "Oil for Food" Coordinator post to protest the effects sanctions are having on ordinary Iraqis, describes political and living conditions in Iraq today. Phyllis Bennis, a writer and Middle East policy expert, led a lively discussion outlining what we need to do to lift the sanctions. Sponsored locally by ICPJ, PREVENT, ADC at UM, Peace Action at Angell Hall Aud. A
3/13/99

Coming Up in June---

• Jesse Jackson: America, We Must Leave No One Behind 4/9/99
• Death Penalty Senate Hearing held in Pontiac, MI 3/23/99

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is in need of a manager for their resale store. 33 hours a week.

Thank you for your support.

About ICPJ Tobi Hanna-Davies, Director; Rev. Barbara Fuller, Rev. Russell Fuller, Coordinators

Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice was founded in 1965 so that congregations and concerned individuals could work together more effectively for social justice and peace. The work is accomplished by task forces of volunteers, with support from staff members and guidance from a steering committee composed of clergy and lay leaders from area congregations. Currently the working program groups are:

All are welcome to join our work. There are no membership dues, though donations are gratefully accepted. ICPJ is funded by gifts from individuals, congregations and other groups. Contributions are tax deductible.

eam Training - May 18 & 25 p. 15

Grandfather,

Look at our brokenness.

We know that in all ceation

Only the human family

Has strayed from the Sacred Way.

We know that we are the ones

Who are divided

And we are the ones

Who must come back together

To walk the Sacred Way.

Grandfather,

Sacred One,

Teach us love, compassion and honor

That we may heal the earth

And heal each other.

Mark The Date On Your Group's Calendar!

The Coordinating Group and its Committees will begin their work on Wed., May 12, 7:00 p.m., at Memorial Christian Church, A2