c. 1999 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON _ U.S. Park Police arrested 23 people, including Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit, as they knelt in prayer outside the White House on Thursday (June 3) to protest the NATO war against Yugoslavia.
It was the largest incident of civil disobedience since the NATO campaign began March 24.”This war violates the moral code of every religious tradition,”Gumbleton told a rally before the arrests began.”An attack against innocent, unarmed people cannot be justified by any law of God or any human law. In the name of God, we say it must stop.” The demonstrators, who were arrested for blocking a White House driveway, called President Clinton a”dictator”and accused him of deliberately targeting civilians in Serbia.
The protest was organized by the National Coalition for Peace in Yugoslavia, a recently formed group of religious and peace groups opposed to the NATO bombings and the Serb-led ethnic cleansing of Kosovo.
Following a news conference, participants said they had hoped to deliver a letter condemning the airstrikes to Clinton.
Waving signs reading”Stop the War”and”Build Bridges Don’t Bomb Them,”some 130 people marched from Lafayette Park _ which faces the White House _ up to the building’s northwest entrance.
The march drew enthusiastic applause from a group of Chinese tourists and curious looks from a group of American high school students.
After a White House guard refused admittance and suggested the protesters submit their letter to the White House Press Office, religious leaders from the coalition knelt to pray and sing hymns.
Police vans arrived, and about 15 minutes later authorities began arresting and handcuffing the protesters, who included Roman Catholics nuns, Quakers and peace activists.
For some, like Gumbleton, it was not the first time they have committed civil disobedience to draw attention to a cause.”The last time was to protest the (U.S.) sanctions against Iraq,”Gumbleton told Religion News Service.
The protesters expressed frustration at what they said was the U.S. government’s waging an unjust war in their names.”Saving face on either side is less important than the lives of people who are being killed,”Sojourners magazine editor Jim Wallis told the rally.”Recourse to military solutions is habitual, and that habit leads us to logic like this _ `the way to protect Kosovars is to bomb civilians in Serbia,'”he said.”This logic has no moral foundation, no political meaning and no practical effect, but this is how we end up when we are backed in these kinds of corners.”Wallis was not among those arrested.
Joe Volk, executive secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker lobbying group, condemned Serb atrocities in Kosovo but also the United States’ retaliation.”Bombing is not the way to stop these crimes against humanity,”he said.”You don’t end a humanitarian crisis by creating more humanitarian crises. You don’t stop war crimes by committing war crimes. You don’t halt violations of international law by violating international law,”said Volk, who was one of those arrested.
The demonstration against the war came amid growing sign of progress toward an end to the bombing. Earlier Thursday, the Serbian Parliament approved a peace plan submitted to it by Russian and Western envoys.
In Washington, however, the protesters vowed to continue their efforts until the bombing stops.”The only thing that addresses the needs of the people here is for the bombing to stop _ now,”said Gordon Clark, executive director of Peace Action.”We are here to demand an end to the illegal, immoral and insane bombing, and we will continue with this protest and others until the bombing stops.” Organizers said a separate letter, intended for Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, would be delivered by way of that country’s U.N. delegation in New York. In it, the coalition condemns both the airstrikes and the ethnic cleansing of ethnic Albanians and calls for an immediate halt to”further brutalities against Albanian Kosovars.”
DEA END ROCKWOOD
