FARMINGTON, PA. February 20, 1998

A six-member delegation from the Bruderhof, a Christian pacifist group, plan to depart within days for Baghdad, Iraq. They travel to stand in solidarity with the innocent civilians of Iraq and to make a statement to the US government. They go knowing they may never return if the United States attacks.

Leading the delegation will be seventy-four-year-old Carroll King, a WWII veteran and former Minnesota legislator who, as a bomber and navigator in 1944 and 1945, flew bombing raids over German cities. His wife Doris will accompany him, as will Franzhard and Veronica Arnold, both in their fifties, and Brian Dunn, twenty three years old. They will be joined en route to Baghdad by David Hibbs of the Bruderhof in England. Hibbs served in the British army for ten years and worked in arms sales during the Iraq-Iran war before joining the Bruderhof.

>From his WWII days, Carroll King knows firsthand the devastation and suffering brought about by bombs. His desire to stand with the Iraqi people stems from his experiences of "the other end of the bombs." He and his wife leave behind their 11 children and 53 grandchildren.

David Hibbs is painfully aware of the suffering endured by the people of Iraq and Iran as a result of the armaments sold by his former British employers. Like Carroll, he travels to Iraq to stand beside the Iraqi people and, in the event of a US attack, to suffer with them.

Veronica Arnold is a nurse and hopes to provide medical aid wherever she is able to.

This journey represents the second time members from the Bruderhof communities will travel to Iraq. Debra Swinger toured Iraq in 1995 and saw firsthand the plight of a population crippled by US bombs and economic sanctions. "It is the children who have suffered and continue to suffer the most. One child dies every nine minutes as a result of what the US has done and continues to do to Iraq," she says.

The delegation will take pictures and letters to the children of Iraq from children in the Bruderhof, including Carroll and Dorisís grandchildren. Other children from across the United States are invited to send pictures to the delegation, who will place them in the hands of Iraqi children. Mail letters to:

Iraq Delegation
New Meadow Run Bruderhof
Box 240
Farmington, Pa 15437
For further information and to arrange interviews call Mark Clement at 724-329-8573.


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