In 1998, the year the vigil began, the US-sponsored UN sanctions against Iraq had been in place for seven years. It had been two years since then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's infamous statement about the toll sanctions were taking on children in Iraq. When asked by Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes about the number of deaths - more than 500,000 - and whether is was "worth it", Albright did not dispute the figure, but responded by saying "... the price - we think the price is worth it."

The fall of 1998 was significant in another way: controversy had erupted around the UN weapons inspectors in Iraq - UNSCOM. Baghdad was complaining - and there was some evidence to support this - that the inspectors were providing information gathered in the inspections process to the US government. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair denied the allegations and began fuming that Saddam Hussein was blocking the work of the inspectors by denying them access to important sites. Threats to punish Iraq for their alleged lack of cooperation increased. A compliant media fueled the fires, painting a picture of an Iraq out of compliance with UN resolutions despite seven years of intrusive inspections, and UNSCOM's reports that 90-95% of Iraq's weapons systems had been disarmed.

Anti-sanctions groups and peace activists, concerned for a country and a people already suffering under the weight of devastation from the first Gulf War and the brutal sanctions, were mobilizing against another bombing campaign. In this context, a small group of local activists got together to talk and plan. The result of our meeting was the formation of the Northampton Committee to Lift the Sanctions Against Iraq. We began our weekly vigil on Saturday December 2, 1998, standing from 11 a.m. to noon in front of the courthouse on Main Street in Northampton; we have been standing on that corner every Saturday since, for the last six years.

From the beginning, our concern was the humanitarian cost of the sanctions. We believed that if people in the Valley knew the enormous price ordinary Iraqis were paying - UNICEF estimated 5,000-7,000 children under the age of five were dying every month in Iraq - they would join us in our campaign to end them. Every week, our leaflets aimed to fill in the story that was, for the most part, missing from the mainstream, corporate media: that people in Iraq were suffering and dying as a result of US-sponsored and supported UN sanctions. In addition to leafleting, we brought many prominent speakers and activists from the anti-sanctions movement to Northampton, including: Kathy Kelly, three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and founder of the Chicago-based Voices in the Wilderness; outspoken Catholic Bishop and founder of Pax Christi USA, Thomas Gumbleton; former head of the UN Oil-for-Food Program in Iraq Dennis Halliday. who resigned in protest over the sanctions; and Sara Flounders, co-founder with Ramsey Clark of the International Action Center. We sponsored folk singer and activist Peggy Seeger, whose Northampton performance was a benefit for children in Iraq, and "Democracy Now" journalist Amy Goodman. We sponsored letter-writing campaigns and personally visited our senators and congressman; we traveled to Washington, D.C. and New York for demonstrations; and we organized speak-outs, marches and rallies in Northampton. The committee has shown many films in venues throughout the valley, including John Pilger's "Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq", and we are currently sponsoring a Friday night film series at the Media Education Foundation in Northampton.

In addition, two members of our committee have traveled to Iraq with humanitarian delegations: Kathleen Winkworth of Leverett and I traveled with the IAC in January, 2001, and I returned in January, 2004. The trips have resulted in an ongoing project for the committee: The Iraqi Children's Art Exchange Project.

Operation Desert Fox, ordered by President Bill Clinton and supported by Prime Minister Tony Blair, began on December 16, 1998. More missiles were launched in three days than over the entire course of the Gulf War. In an interview on Larry King Live that same day, Secretary of State Albright said there was "...a military reason for having a sustained and substantial attack on Iraq ... in order to degrade Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction capability, his ability to develop and deploy the weapons of mass destruction, and his ability to threaten his neighbors."

Fast-forward through 312 hours of vigiling - equivalent to standing day and night for nearly two weeks - to December, 2004. The committee has changed its name to the Northampton Committee to Stop the War Against Iraq. We continue standing every week calling for an end to the war and an end to the occupation. Our concerns continue to be humanitarian ones; we know that it is the people of Iraq - the men, women and children - who have been paying the price for these last fifteen years of war, sanctions and more war. To the accumulated suffering, misery and death of sanctions we now add the Iraqis killed by the current war and occupation, estimated at between 14,548 and 16,714. We don't know how many are wounded. We know that people in the US and Britain are also paying a big price for our government's actions and the continuing tragedy in Iraq. The enormous financial costs of the war robs us, across the board, of needed revenue for programs and services. And, many are paying for this war with their lives or the lives of their loved ones.

Claudia Lefko