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PRIEST FROM INDIANA RETURNS TO CHICAGO TONIGHT AFTER WITNESSING WAR IN BAGHDAD
For Immediate Release
March 27, 2003
Contact: Stephanie Schaudel 773.784.8065
Tom Walsh 773.784.8065
On-Site Contact: Tony Lenzo 312.925.7762
"Fr. Jerry Zawada returns to the United States tonight after 6 weeks in Iraq with the peace initiative Iraq Peace Team. Zawada was witness to the first few days of the US-led military bombardment of Baghdad as well as the militarized areas between Baghdad and Amman.
The trip from Baghdad was lonely and creepy -- burning oil pits, bombed and burned out cars on the side of the road (the place we always stop on the trip to Baghdad from Amman), downed bridges, destroyed roadside tea stand, destroyed ambulance abandoned down the embankment, a few routes hastily blocks with piles of rocks…
Many young Iraqi men were being expelled from Jordan from their jobs in Jordan back into Iraq. They walk across the border into the empty dark desert with small bags slung over their shoulders."
-Fr. Zawada and fellow IPT member Thorne Anderson, on their drive from Baghdad to Amman
Fr. Zawada, from Cedar Lake, Indiana, is a Franciscan Brother with longtime involvement in the Catholic Worker movement, with refugees seeking political asylum and with Voices in the Wilderness, a nonviolent campaign to end the economic sanctions and war against Iraq. He has spent approximately 3.5 years in prison for protest actions at nuclear missile silos, the US Army School of the Americas (recently renamed) and on behalf of the homeless.
Fr. Zawada is scheduled to arrive at O'Hare on Royal Jordanian flight 263 at 6:15 pm tonight, March 27 and will be available for interviews in the baggage claim area of the International Terminal.
Voices in the Wilderness' 25 Iraq Peace Team (IPT) members are continuing independent reporting from downtown locations in Baghdad where they remain to help Iraqi citizens as they struggle to survive through bombardment and invasion.
To coordinate interviews with Voices' IPT members who have recently returned from Iraq and/or members who are currently in Baghdad or Amman, please call 773.784.8065 and ask for Tom or Danny.
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