Participants in the conference on "The Liberation of Kuwait: Dawning of a New World Order?" discussed Middle East policy issues inside Old Cabell Hall yesterday as demonstrators affiliated with the "Not One More Coffin" conference protested Iraqi sanctions on the Lawn.
The Charlottesville Coalition to Lift the Sanctions placed one black coffin on the Lawn every eight minutes to represent the rapid number of deaths that have occurred among Iraqi children since U.S. economic sanctions went into effect in 1990.
Signs reading "Stop Bombing: Sanctions Kill Kids not Saddam" and "An Iraqi Child Dies Every 8 Minutes" covered the area outside Old Cabell Hall.
The CCLS formed because the University "Liberation of Kuwait" conference failed to include a discussion on how the sanctions imposed on Iraq have affected the social programs, education, sanitation, economy and health care in that country.
"If you're going to talk about a new world order, human rights must be included," said John Bugbee, CCLS co-founder and a religious studies graduate student.
The CCLS tried to combine efforts with the "Liberation of Kuwait" conference but organized its own instead. The CCLS has as its "primary goal to educate people about the sanctions and what they're doing to the people in Iraq," Bugbee said.
The "Liberation of Kuwait" conference coincides with the 10th anniversary of Kuwait's liberation. The conference, which continues until tomorrow, seeks to "provide for the exchange of information and experiences of the liberation of Kuwait from a political, psychological, social and educational perspective," said Basheer Al-Rashidi, chairman of the Social Development Office in Kuwait.
The conference does not focus on the humanitarian affects of sanctions on Iraq, but a panel on "Iraq's Occupation of Kuwait" led to a discussion of the sanctions during yesterday's luncheon at Alumni Hall, said Nathaniel Howell, coordinator of the "Liberation of Kuwait" conference.
Howell was a U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait during the 1990 invasion of Iraq and is now head of the University's Institute for Global Policy Research.
CCLS demonstrators distributed statistical information on the effect of the sanctions on the people of Iraq to passers-by .
"We've been able to educate so many people," said Jennifer Leigh, CCLS member and third-year College student.
CCLS has planned a march through Charlottesville to protest the state of health care system in Iraq. It will begin at 4 p.m. today outside of Jordan Hall.
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