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 News from Around the Americas | March 2006 
Peace Activist Sheehan Arrested in NY Protest
 Reuters
| | Peace activist Cindy Sheehan (2nd R) is arrested by police officers after blocking the door to the U.S. Mission offices in New York March 6, 2006. (Reuters/Keith Bedford) |
Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war activist whose son was killed in the Iraq war, was arrested with three other protesters in New York on Monday after a rally with women from Iraq.
Sheehan became a central figure in the U.S. anti-war movement last summer after she camped outside President George W. Bush's Texas ranch and has been arrested at least two other times at protests.
On Monday, she had joined a delegation of women from Iraq at the rally at the United Nations, urging the global body to help prevent civil war in Iraq.
About 20 protesters went to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations to deliver a petition with 60,000 signatures seeking an end to the war.
The protesters said they had been told they could send a delegation into the building to present their petition, but that no one showed up to receive them.
A Reuters photographer said security guards inside the building had held the doors to prevent them from entering.
But Richard Grenell, the spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, said the protesters had been invited in but had refused to do so because media representatives were not allowed to accompany them.
"We invited them in to the U.S. mission in a small group," Grenell said. "They were not willing to separate themselves from the media."
Sheehan and three other American women then sat down in front of the building, refused to leave, and were arrested.
A police spokesman said they were expected to be released later on Monday.
The Iraqi women plan to deliver a petition to the White House on Wednesday. Earlier they held a news conference at U.N. headquarters calling for the United States to withdraw its forces.
Entisar Mohammad Ariabi, a pharmacist at Baghdad's Yarmook Teaching Hospital, wept as she told reporters of the hardships experienced by Iraqi women.
"U.S. occupation has destroyed our country, made it into a prison," she said. "Schools are bombed, hospitals are bombed."
"We thank you, Mr. Bush, for liberating our country from Saddam. But now, go out! Please go out!" she said.
(Additional reporting by Irwin Arieff) |
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