News release 9/11/03        (Photo follows of Kathy in DeKalb last year)   
 Info:   Cele Meyer 758-0796

Kathy Kelly, founder of  Voices in the Wilderness, will report on her 
time in Iraq, "Before", "During", and "After" the recent U.S. war on that 
country. She will be speaking in the Heritage Room at Holmes Student Center 
on NIU campus at 7:30 p.m. on  September 25th.

Those who heard Kelly at the time  of her presentation here last year recall 
her as a dynamic, impassioned speaker.  She has devoted the last seven
years of her life to the effort to make American public aware of 
the suffering of the Iraqi people, especially the children, as result of 
U.S. bombing and the prolonged embargo. She will share fresh 
insights into how Iraq is faring after the last war and under the present 
U.S. occupation.

Voices has sponsored over 70 humanitarian missions to Iraq, delivering 
medicines and toys to dying children in their ravaged hospitals. For 
this, the U.S. government has slapped huge fines on tour participants, 
which they have announced they have no intention of paying. However, 
they are seeking to raise the amount of the fines, in order to purchase 
more humanitarian goods to deliver on future trips.
 
Voices is currently sponsoring a "Spotlight Iraq" campaign calling for
 
	• compliance with Geneva Convention requirements of an occupying 
	force,

	• replacement of U.S./U.K. troops with international peace 
	keepers, and 

	• halting corporate looting of Iraq's resources.

Kelly has been twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and received 
the 1998 Pax Christi Teacher of Peace Award, as well as the Newberry 
Library Free Speech Award

Her DeKalb appearance is sponsored by the DeKalb Interfaith Network for 
Peace & Justice and NIU's Northern Coalition for Peace & Justice. 
There is no admission fee.

For further information, call Cele Meyer, 815/758-0796, 739 W. Hillcrest Drive, 
DeKalb IL;  <ameyer@niu.edu>