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===============================================================Dear Friends,

Could you, please help us to sign this letter and send it to the address
mentioned below. We do need to have a great number of Religious Leaders.
In the Past a lot of US Bishops signed a similar letter to President
Clinton. We do need now more and more leaders to join the Campaign of
Voices in the Wilderness.

Please send this to your Religious leaders, urge them to sign and send the
letter, and send us the number of religous leaders that signed. 

NUMBER speaks out here in the USA. We do need to reach thousands and
thousands of Leaders and signatures. 

THANKS,
Fr. Labib Kobti
=Subj:   Letter to Mr. Clinton from religious leaders

President William Jefferson Clinton     
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500
                                                                                
Summer, 1998
                                                                
Dear Mr.  President, 

We are religious leaders who share your concern about the level of violence
and poverty in the U.S. and in other countries.  

Many of us were moved when you expressed grief and outrage over the killings
of school children in Oregon and Arkansas.  Your passionate concern helped
heal deep sorrow.  

Over the past several years, our churches, mosques, and synagogues have
been involved in efforts to extend a hand of compassion and friendship to
families in Iraq.  Delegations who have traveled there have reported the
tremendous suffering of the Iraqi people, especially children, due to the
lack of food and medicine.  In fact, the UN itself admits that hundreds of
thousands of Iraqi children have died as a result of the US supported UN
sanctions.  We believe that the sanctions, in violation of our moral
teaching as well as of basic human rights, unfairly punish the innocent
civilians.  Humanitarian relief, however helpful, does not adequately
address the issue since the breakdown of the infrastructures has caused a
dramatic increase in illness.  Any further imposition of the sanctions
would be intolerable and inhumane. 

With this in mind, we welcome recent news reports which indicate increased
possibility of beginning to lift the anctions as early as October 1998. 
UNSCOM Executive Chairman Richard Butler, expressing his optimism
regarding the more recent negotiations, has said, "The light at the end of
the tunnel is more visible" (Reuters 6-14-98). 

We join in prayerful hope that you will press for immediate cessation of
sanctions against Iraq.  We call upon you to also express the appropriate
sentiments of remorse and regret for the suffering already caused. 

Mr. President, you have an unusual opportunity to envision and uphold a
serious commitment to finding nonviolent, humane ways to resolve
conflicts.  You could promote peacemaking worldwide by seeking
reconciliation between the governments of Iraq and the United States.  As
a sign of commitment toward a new direction, you could recommend massive
relief shipments to assist with healing and rebuilding in Iraq. You could
help US people understand that by bringing Iraq back into the world
community and extending the hand of friendship, we can more effectively
strengthen the institutions in Iraqi society which can, in the future,
contribute toward positive social changes. 

We will unite with you in asserting that efforts to explore every
available nonviolent means for resolving conflicts will give Iraqi
children, US children and children worldwide far better hopes for safety
and security in our troubled world. 


Sincerely,
Voices in the Wilderness
A Campaign to End the US/UN Economic Sanctions Against the People of Iraq
1460 West Carmen Ave.
Chicago, IL 60640
ph:773-784-8065; f: 773-784-8837
email: kkelly@igc.apc.org