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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 2004, pages 46-47 Northern California Chronicle Grapes Flourish on Afghanistan’s Now Mine-Free Former BattlefieldsBy Elaine Pasquini
TURNING MINES to vines has been the mission of Roots of Peace (RoP) founder and director Heidi Kuhn since she began her efforts to rid the world of landmines in September of 1997, after the death of Princess Diana. Speaking at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club Sept. 15, Kuhn discussed her organization’s efforts to identify and clear minefields and return the land to agricultural use. In 1999, working with the United Nations, and with financial assistance from individuals and several Napa Valley vintners, RoP began demining in Dragalic, Croatia. Grapes now grow in the cleared area. Through a large donation by Diane Disney Miller, RoP currently is working on the demining and replanting of an additional 148 acres in Croatia. And thanks to a donation from Chevron Texaco, RoP removed landmines in Cambodia, where today fields of rice and soybeans flourish on former minefields. The group has expanded its demining efforts into Afghanistan—the most heavily mined country in the world, with an estimated 10 million landmines. “It costs about $3 to place a landmine in the ground and $1,000 to remove one,” Kuhn said, holding an inactivated landmine in her hand. “Landmines are an indiscriminate weapon of mass destruction—whether it be the boot of a soldier or the sandal of a child—deadly, buried beneath the ground.” According to U.S. State Department estimates, she said, more than 70 million landmines in at least 70 countries maim or kill an estimated 25,000 people—mostly women and children—each year. Performing humanitarian work has become a family affair in the Kuhn household. Kuhn’s husband, Gary, oversees demining and replanting in Afghanistan. Working with agricultural experts from the University of California at Davis, as well as the Global Partnership for Afghanistan, the Afghan Development Association and the Afghan Center, he made five trips to the country this year. Daughter, Kyleigh, 17, inspired by her first trip to Croatia four years ago, launched Pennies for Peace on Sept. 11, 2003. Six months later the teenager presented a check to Mrs. Nane Annan, wife of the U.N. secretary-general, representing seven million pennies raised by children in Marin County. Children representing schools from 20 countries attended the ceremony at the U.N. International School conference held at U.N. headquarters in New York and, because they wanted to contribute rubles and pesos, the group is now called Making Change Work. The funds will be used by the U.N. Mine Action Service to demine schoolyards and soccer fields in Afghanistan. The rich agricultural area of the Shomali Plains, about 30 miles north of Kabul, Kuhn said, has a 7,000-year tradition of growing grapes, and at one time boasted 70 different varieties. The Thompson seedless grape, she noted, is a descendant of the main Afghan grape indigenous to this region. Through a myriad of donors, the San Rafael-based organization raised the largest private demining donation in the history of Afghanistan, she said. Last summer, 300 Afghan deminers removed more than 100,000 landmines from this region, which this month will yield 80 tons of grapes to be exported to India. “It gives me great pride and great hope to know there will be a harvest of hope in the next week,” Kuhn enthused. Noting how fortunate Americans are to live in a landmine-free country, Kuhn said she feels obligated to help others. In addition to preventing death and injury, a major goal of RoP, she emphasized, “is to empower people to help themselves and, through the soil, have a sense of economic viability.” As a mother of four, Kuhn was deeply moved when a nine-year-old Croatian child asked her, “Is it really true that in California the children can hike the mountains and run on the beaches without fear of landmines? It must be heaven.” To learn more, call toll-free 1-888-ROOTS31; e-mail: <info@rootsofpeace.org>; or visit the RoP Web site, <www.rootsofpeace.org>. Mourning the Rising Death Toll in Iraq
On Sept. 6, U.S. Marines Lamont N. Wilson, Mick R. Nygardbekowsky, Joseph C. McCarthy, Quinn A. Keith, Derek L. Gardner, David Paul Burridge and Michael J. Allred died in a car bombing near Fallujah. These seven casualties elevated the death toll of American servicemen and women to 1,000.* Upon hearing this news, peace groups around the country called for vigils to be held Sept. 9 to mourn the deaths, along with those of more than 14,000 Iraqi civilians. Responding to the action alert, 25 peace activists from the Marin Peace and Justice Coalition held a vigil at the corner of Third and Irwin in the north bay town of San Rafael. Since 1999 the group of longtime activists has regularly protested—against sanctions on Iraq, the war on Afghanistan and, since March 19, 2003, the war on Iraq—during rush hour on Friday evenings, at this busy San Rafael intersection. As night fell, the vigilers made their way through the downtown streets, winding their way through families enjoying the weekly Farmers Market. At Fourth and A streets, the group joined more than 100 people in a candlelight vigil organized by the political action group MoveOn at the old Courthouse Square. Other groups holding vigils around the country included United for Peace and Justice, Win Without War, Military Families Speak Out, and Veterans for Peace Now. *Data research by Patricia D. Kneisler and Michael S. White of <www.luna ville.org>. Mothers Speak Out Against Iraq War
On Sept. 11, 2004, while the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were honored in memorials across America, members of Mothers Speak, Military Families Speak Out, Veterans for Peace and other anti-war groups gathered in San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza to honor the victims of the ongoing war on Iraq. Standing in front of 11 panels bearing photos of fallen servicemen and women, and two panels of generic facial outlines representing Iraqi civilian deaths, each speaker addressed the cost of war, in terms of loss of human lives, as well as the financial cost. Rachel Avila spoke poignantly of her son’s convalescence after suffering serious injuries, including shrapnel injuries and burns to his face, neck, hands and arms. “I remember Ryan wiggling his toes to say goodbye,” she said, relating her visit to her son in Texas, where he’d been sent for medical treatment. “I wonder what his quality of life will be after he recuperates.” Nadia McCaffrey’s son, Patrick, enlisted in the National Guard after the 9/11 attacks. He died June 22 near Balad, Iraq. Protesting the Pentagon’s policy banning media coverage of the coffins of American war dead returning home, McCaffrey summoned journalists and photographers to cover the arrival of her son’s remains at Sacramento International Airport on June 27. “I didn’t want to hide his coming home,” she stated. “We should not hide our sons and daughters coming back home.” Samina Faheem, executive director of American Muslim Voices, spoke about the rights and freedoms Americans—especially Muslims—have lost since the enactment of the PATRIOT Act. The fiery director urged all Americans to “stand together to oppose acts which target all Americans, and not just Muslims.” Calling for an end to the U.S.-led war on Iraq, Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin urged the small crowd to continue building a peace and justice movement until the U.S. government listens and responds to the wishes of the American people. Arab Cultural Festival
Music, poetry, good food and camaraderie were in abundance at San Francisco’s County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park, the scene of the Arab Cultural and Community Center’s tenth annual Arab Cultural Festival Sept. 19. Some 3,000 visitors attended the event, according to festival organizer Darwish Addassi. ACCC’s president, Link TV producer Jamal Dajani, welcomed guests in the main auditorium, before turning the program over to masters of ceremony Yvonne Addassi, Inas El Mashni, Gina Mahmud and Ahmed Hashem. Entertainment—ranging from traditional Middle Eastern music and dancing to hip-hop and poetry reading—was non-stop throughout the afternoon. Dancers included Hilah Sulme performing a traditional Egyptian cane dance, and Jasmyn Gloria Mabalatan’s rendition of a North African trance dance. The crowd-pleasing hip-hop artist Iron Sheik conveyed his views on U.S. foreign policy and the Palestinian struggle against occupation. In a quieter mode, Palestinian-American artist and writer Fayeq Oweis read Mahmoud Darwish’s “Identity Card” in its original Arabic, while ACCC outreach coordinator Nadine Ghammache translated the poem into English. In the adjacent exhibition hall, visitors browsed information booths and shopped for jewelry, books, handmade Arabian clothing and traditional arts and crafts. On the outdoor patio, children learned to write their names in Arabic and completed a magnetic puzzle of the Arab world. The ACCC may be reached at (415) 664-2200; via e-mail at <info@arabculturecenter.org>; or on its Web site, <http://www.arabculturalcenter.org>. Elaine Pasquini is a free-lance photojournalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. |
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