Voices for Creative Nonviolence: 
A Campaign To Challenge U.S. Military And Economic Warfare Against Iraq and To End The "Global War On Terror"

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE        
Contacts:	Kathy Kelly	773-878-3815
	Joel Gulledge	773-878-3815
		
100,000 RINGS: In Remembrance of the Iraqi Dead

CHICAGO –  From October 24 - 28, 2005, in locations across the U.S. and the U.K., bells will toll in remembrance of the more than 100,000 Iraqis who have died as a consequence of the U.S. led invasion and occupation of Iraq. In 100 locations listed at www.iraqmortality.org, participants in the "100,000 Rings" campaign will ring a bell once a minute, for 1,000 minutes, to express grief and condolence for every life lost as a result of the U.S. bombing, invasion and occupation of Iraq.  

"We reject the fantasies President Bush and Prime Minister Blair are constructing, claiming to increase security through military adventurism", said Kathy Kelly, co-founder of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. "When silence surrounds the suffering and death of the Iraqi people, caught on a battlefield without borders in the crossfire of a war they didn’t start or invite, poet John Donne's words come to mind: 'Do not ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.' True security lies in forming friendly and fair relationships with other people and in expressing our sorrow over suffering caused by U.S. economic and military warfare. We likewise mourn the deaths of U.S. people killed in Iraq."

"As people opposed to the US/UK war and occupation of Iraq, we act to end the silence about the suffering and death in Iraq and to publicly unlock the grief that it has caused in our communities," says Scott Blackburn, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. "To mark the anniversary of the release of the Lancet Study on 29 October 2004, we will gather in public places, over a four day span, for a simple and solemn ’Bell Ringing‘ ceremony. We will ring a bell every minute, 1,000 times, each solitary ring symbolizing the death of an Iraqi person as a result of the war and occupation. One hundred communities ringing a bell 1,000 times would equal 100,000 rings". 

One year ago on October 29, 2004 the British medical journal "The Lancet" published an epidemiological study estimating that upwards of 100,000 Iraqis died as a consequence of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. 

Voices for Creative Nonviolence seeks to build and strengthen active nonviolent resistance to the U.S. war against Iraq’s people; to foster international peace teams; and to challenge the United States’ "Global War on Terror", which is a war OF terror far more than it is a "war ON terror". Several members have lived in Iraq before, during, and after the U.S. invasion in 2003.