Home>News Center>World
         
 

Hundreds mourn US woman fighting for Iraq war victims
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-24 08:36

One week after Marla Ruzicka was killed in a suicide bombing in Baghdad, hundreds gathered at a funeral mass where the young American woman was remembered as a hero for her courageous campaign to help war victims.


US humanitarian aid worker Marla Ruzicka, 27, shown here on April 15. Ruzicka died in Iraq working for her non-governmental organization, the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict. [AFP]

The gathering in her northern California hometown drew celebrities and prominent politicians, from the reporters who knew her intimately to actor Sean Penn and US Senator Barbara Boxer, who eulogized the 28-year-old activist.

Through her organization Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflicts, Ruzicka had worked extensively in Iraq and in Afghanistan to document the exact number of civilians killed or injured by US forces, and helped victims receive 10 million dollars in compensation from the US government.

Ruzicka lived "under the guideline 'their tragedies are my responsabilities'," Boxer, of California, said at the funeral.

The Reverend Ted Oswald, who said mass, found it "sad that it takes a young girl's death to understand what she accomplished. It's just unbelievable what she did."

"I count her among my heroes," said Penn, who has traveled to Iraq and wrote about his experience in a California newspaper.

Tim Rieser, foreign policy adviser to Senator Patrick Leahy, who pushed Congress to pass the compensation legislation, said: "Marla started something that remains unfinished but gives us an opportunity that we didn't have before."

Ruzicka was traveling toward Baghdad airport on April 16 when her car was hit by a suicide car bomb, which seemed aimed at a security convoy driving ahead of Ruzicka's vehicle. Three others died in the bomb attack, including her Iraqi colleague, Faiz Ali Salim.

Her courage touched foreign correspondents who met the blond Californian while they were covering the conflicts.

Foreign correspondents this week wrote about their encounters with Ruzicka, remembering her blond hair and young face.

"At first, Ruzicka seemed too much of a flower child to be taken seriously," wrote The Washington Post's Pamela Constable, who met her in Afghanistan in 2001.

But, she said, "There was a determined agenda behind her ditsy persona, an earnest sense of purpose that enabled her to charm her way through military checkpoints and wring pledges of aid for war victims from congressional offices."

In 2002 she led a group of Afghan families to the gates of the US embassy to demand compensation for the victims.

"After that, we all viewed her with new respect," Constable wrote.

She managed to throw parties and find vodka, crashed in reporters' couches for the night and never had any money.

"The men fell in love with her and the women were reminded of themselves, a decade or two younger," she wrote.

In Iraq, another Washington Post reporter recalled that she had once thrown a party called "Baghdad Needs Some Love," Constable wrote.

The New York Times' Robert Worth, who saw her the night before she died, wrote about her "electric smile."

She was visiting Iraqi families that had lost relatives to the violence in Baghdad the day she was killed, Worth wrote.

He wrote that a medic at the scene of the attack heard her last words: "I'm alive."

Journalists came from around the world to remember her at the mass Saturday.

Catherine Philp, a friend of hers and a Times of London South Asia correspondent, remembered that Ruzicka gave hugs to whoever she felt needed one.

"If we could all be like Marla and hug strangers," she said.

CNN contributor Peter Bergen quoted the last e-mail he received from her about Iraq: "This place breaks my heart. Need to get out of here, but with heart."



 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

China initiates five proposals on ties with Japan

 

   
 

Boycotting Japanese goods makes no good

 

   
 

Asia-Africa strategic partnership signed

 

   
 

AP cameraman killed in Iraq attacks

 

   
 

Jia: Building harmonious, prosperous Asia

 

   
 

NPC solicits views on law interpretation

 

   
  New Italian government sworn in
   
  Migrant women trapped in Europe's sex industry
   
  Asia-Africa strategic partnership signed
   
  Iraq bomb attacks leave at least 16 dead
   
  AP cameraman killed in Iraq attacks
   
  Hundreds mourn US woman fighting for Iraq war victims
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  News Talk  
  Are the Republicans exploiting the memory of 9/11?  
Advertisement
         
主站蜘蛛池模板: 黄页网址大全免费观看22| 啊灬啊别停灬用力啊岳| 久久国产亚洲高清观看| 欧美黑人乱大交ⅹxxxxx| 午夜精品久久久久久久无码| 香瓜七兄弟第二季| 尹人香蕉网在线观看视频| 亚洲福利电影一区二区?| 成年美女黄网站色大片图片| 强行扒开双腿猛烈进入免费视频| 久久文学网辣文小说| 欧美人善交videosg| 嘿嘿嘿视频免费网站在线观看| 黄无遮挡免费网站视频| 国产精品久久国产精品99盘 | 国产一国产一级毛片视频| 精品brazzers欧美教师| 我与白丝同桌的故事h文| 久久精品国1国二国三在| 粗大的内捧猛烈进出视频| 国产粗话肉麻对白在线播放| 一级毛片60分钟在线播放久草高清在线| 日本深夜福利19禁在线播放| 亚洲精品国产日韩| 草草久久久无码国产专区| 国模视频一区二区| 久久99精品国产麻豆不卡| 欧美激情xxxx性bbbb| 人妻少妇精品无码专区二区 | 里番acg全彩| 国产女人高潮抽搐喷水免费视频 | 亚洲国产美女精品久久久久| 正能量www正能量免费网站| 人久热欧美在线观看量量| 男女作爱免费网站| 免费看的一级毛片| 精品免费国产一区二区三区| 国产成人免费a在线视频app| 99热精品久久| 日本一区二区三区在线观看视频| 久久精品女人天堂av免费观看|