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Dear all
An edited version of this interview is carried in the latest Voices UK
newsletter, available from gabriel@viwuk.freeserve.co.uk
Voices in the Wilderness UK organises sanctions-breaking delegations
to Iraq. Our website is http://www.viwuk.freeserve.co.uk
Cheers
Milan Rai
Joint Coordinator Voices in the Wilderness UK
gensing29road@yahoo.co.uk (for November)
Interview with Matt Barr, Sun. 4 Nov.
Matt is representing voices in the wilderness uk on the voices us-
organised ‘Walk for Healing and Peace’ from Washington DC to New
York at the end of this month (see page 3 for more details). He will
then be taking part in the joint US-UK delegation to Iraq in Dec. 2001.
Matt: I’ve just turned 21 [two nights earlier!]. Currently I’m a student,
doing a sound recording course. Interests are music-based, obviously,
though politics and activism is my first love behind music.
voices: What drew you to take part in a sanctions-breaking
delegation?
Matt: Initially, it was because I was so horrified by what was happening
in Iraq, and in my name as a member of the British public.
I felt almost powerless in what I could do as a persuasive
measure in government, and so I felt this was a very positive way to
show the Iraqi people that though this was handed out by the British
government, it wasn’t necessarily supported by the British public.
But also because I felt that by going to Iraq and witnessing
what’s happening, I kind of felt that it might in some way add an
element of credibility, that there were eyewitness accounts, and
people had seen it for themselves, and it wasn’t all based on statistics,
and reports from the UN.
I felt it was important to have personal accounts of individuals in
Iraq, individual families, individual children, who have stories of their
own. Because that way you could humanise what was going on, rather
than it being ‘collated data’.
I’m a great believer in accepting responsibility for one’s actions,
and I feel that our government are strongly denying any responsibility,
so just wanted to act, I guess, in whatever small form an individual
could.
voices: After September 11, the sanctions-breaking delegation was
postponed indefinitely, and a new kind of delegation was proposed,
which is now going to take place in December. How did you feel
about that sequence of events?
Matt: My initial reaction was disappointment, because my prime focus
was a sanctions-breaking delegation.
But, increasingly, as the reaction to September 11 in Britain and
the US has occurred, it has become more and more important to
focus on peace-related means of action.
I guess, initially, my reaction was: do I still want to go? Do I want
to put myself in that position? Am I willing to put myself in that
position?
And it took me a long time from being absolutely determined to
go on a sanctions-breaking delegation to all of a sudden the context of
the delegation changing.
I was unsure whether or not I was willing to put myself in that
position.
I was still adamant that I wanted to go, and that I believed in the
delegation, thought it was vitally important that it go ahead.
But whether or not I could really put myself in that position, I
had to sit down and really question and work out whether it was
suitable for me at that point in time to go ahead with it.
It took me a couple of weeks to get my head around the
potential connotations of military action while I was there.
I came to the conclusion that I felt so strongly about what was
going on in Iraq, and what has been going on in Iraq, that that almost
became a secondary issue.
Because it was out of my control. I don’t have control over
what may or may not happen while I’m there. I have control over
whether I choose to go. And the reasons for wanting to go, the
reasons I feel I need to go, didn’t change, despite the fears and the
doubts about the possibilities of actions that might happen while I
was there
It was, it still is, a very frightening prospect.
But when I think about the fact that this delegation will last ten
days that we’re physically in Iraq, it’s nothing compared to what it
must be like to live under these conditions, and to have to exist,
survive, with such knowledge that these things might happen. It’s
nothing compared to having to actually get on with life and deal with
it, which the Iraqi people do, and they don’t have a choice in it.
I kind of felt that it was a risk that I was willing to take, and
accept the consequences of it, because I’m appalled - and outraged -
by what is going on in Iraq.
If any military action were to happen, whether I’m there or not,
I would be strongly opposed to it. Like the sanctions policy, it would
affect the civilian population more so than anybody else, and that
resonates with me very strongly: there is an innocent population in
Iraq that have all but been forgotten about.
voices: There is a real risk of death, and injury, perhaps even
incarceration, on this delegation. How do you feel about that?
Matt: I feel terrified really. And petrified by the possibility of death. It’s
a very very daunting and ral prospect.
When I sat down and thought about it, it was one of the worst
experiences I’ve gone through, thinking of leaving my family and my
loved ones behind, and how they would cope, what it would be like
for them.
It was gruelling, and a very painful experience. It was actually
horrendous. It was a very hard thing for me to get through.
The thing that did get me through, and to a certain extent
surprised me, was the fact that even after I’d acknowledged the
possibility of such things happening, my desire to actually go hadn’t
decreased or been diluted whatsoever.
There was no wavering in my desire to go.
I still am very fearful about going, and will be throughout the
delegation, I am sure. But my willingness and determination to do this
burns so much brighter than my fears that I feel as though I have to
follow my heart and stand up for what I believe in.
Though my fears are very real, I don’t want them inhibiting
doing what I believe in.
I have absolutely no desire to die in Iraq. It’s the last thing I
want to happen, be it a US or UK delegate, or an Iraqi person. It’s the
last thing I want to happen, and I’m sure it’s the last thing my family
want to happen.
voices: How do you feel about joining the Walk for Healing and Peace
in the US?
Matt: When I was asked to do it, I was overjoyed. To be able to take
part in something as significant as that, for me personally, the
emotions and the energy that I’ll get out of it. It’s such a needed thing
to be done, and to be part of that, will be a wonderful thing, to stand
up and be counted in a peaceful movement, trying to find peaceful
resolutions.
It will be really overwhelming, and I’m honoured actually to be
able to actually take part in this, and it’s something that will never
leave me.
Even though I haven’t done it yet, I feel proud of it’s happening,
regardless of my participation or not. And to be part of it is a very
special thing.
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