CCSU prof leads disruption of Albright speech

By Kelley O. Beaucar

HERALD PRESS CORRESPONDENT

MIDDLETOWN -- Piercing the polite silence afforded U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at the beginning of her speech at Wesleyan University, the label "murderer," served as a reminder that not everyone is satisfied with U.S. foreign policy -- especially in the Middle East.

"Stop killing Iraqi children! You should be ashamed of yourself," yelled Central Connecticut State University professor Liz Aaronsohn, who was ushered out of the auditorium by State Police, along with other protesters who stood up and voiced their opposition to the economic sanctions that have been imposed on Iraq since the end of the Persian Gulf War in 1990.

Albright, smiling until the last of the shouts had been silenced, made light of the awkward disturbance, but took offense to Aaronsohn's comment that she was condoning genocide in Iraq. Albright, whose Jewish family had fled Nazi persecution during World War II said stridently, "don't talk to me about genocide!"

But the protesters outside, many of whom have been active in their opposition to the sanctions for more than a year, say Albright's appearance two months after a NATO invasion of Iraq has stirred up a lot of ill feelings against U.S. policy. United Nation officials have said that close to 4,000 children die a month in Iraq due to the sanctions, while President Clinton says the embargo will not be lifted until dictator Saddam Hussein allows unfettered weapons inpections as agreed in the resolution following the war.

The politics has gone back and forth, say activists, but it is really the people who have suffered from a lack of medicine and food, they say. The oil-for-food program initiated by the UN is not helping and the threat of Hussein's weapons of mass destruction is not justification enough for starving an entire people, they say.

"We have to protest it," said Stanley Heller, chair of the Middle East Crisis Committee, which filed a formal complaint against Albright at the Middletown Police Department Saturday morning and asked for her arrest. They claim Albright, as a policy maker for the U.S. government, is guilty of violating U.S. and international law governing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Middletown Police accepted the formal complaint and says it has yet to evaluate the petition. Albright left town shortly after her speech without incident. Meanwhile a large crowd consiting of people of all ages, gathered in front of Crowell Hall that afternoon with signs and bullhorns to voice their disapproval.

"The sanctions are illegal," said Heller, who notes that his group has been protesting the sanctions since the end of the war. "The numbers that have been killed because of the santions are hundreds of thousands; a ghastly number."

Activists like Liz Aaronsohn, a Central Connecticut State University professor, say more than 1 million people have died because of the sanctions. She says she is disturbed when she hears people say that it is alright to bomb Iraq if it means getting rid of Hussein.

"If that's what the American people think, then we have a big educational task ahead of us," she noted, an hour before she was ushered out of the auditorium where Albright spoke by State Police. She was one of the protesters who shouted at Albright to end the sanctions as the Secretary of State's Address began.

"She can't put a pretty face on Iraq -- it's a mess and they know it," said Jean DeSmet, a resident of Willamantic, who stood with the protestors awaiting Albright's departure from the campus afterward.

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