Event Details:
Peace Boat Center Tokyo
Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
19:00 start (doors open at 18:30)
www.peaceboat.org/english/wtpb/map.html
tel: 03-3363-8047

Speaker Profile:
Name: Kasim Turki
Age: 30
Birthdate: November 27, 1976
Profession: Aid worker
Hometown: Ramadi, Anbar province, Iraq
Education: Mechanical Engineering degree from Anbar University

Kasim served in the Republican Guard during the Iraq War. After reporting to media in the Baghdad area regarding an assault that took place in Fallujah on April 28, 2003 whereby U.S. forces began shooting at participants of a demonstration, Kasim began working with U.S. television network CNN, as well as freelance Japanese journalists.

In June of the same year, Kasim was unjustly arrested by U.S. forces while doing research with a Japanese journalist, and was held for nine days. Following his release, he began chairing the Rebuild Youth Group of Iraq. Projects to date include rebuilding schools and other facilities, opening a medical clinic, and providing emergency support to displaced civilians. Since 2004, Kasim has also served as the local area supervisor for the Fallujah Reconstruction Project, which provides assistance from the private sector in Japan.

Last year, a blog written by Kasim in English that describes local conditions in Ramadi drew attention in the U.S., and caused him to once again be detained by the U.S. military.

IRAQ MAIL ~THE VOICE FROM RAMADI~
www.iraqmail.blogspot.com
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On February 22, 2007, bombing from U.S. fighter planes destroyed four homes in Ramadi, a city in western Iraq’s Anbar province. 26 people were killed, and many more were injured.

For the past four years homes have been destroyed, schools have been occupied, supplies of food and medicine have stopped, and the skies have been filled with fear.

Civilian deaths and their bereaved loved ones have continued to multiply during this period — as have the numbers of people fighting back in armed resistance.

A young man from the war zone of Ramadi, which has become the largest site in the “war on terror” — and where media from around the world do not have access — has traveled to Japan in order to share his personal story.
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Sponsored by:
NPO Peace on
Iraq Hope Network
Fallujah Reconstruction Project