Group to mark war's toll with 100,000 Rings

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Monday October 24, 2005 Group to mark war's toll with 100,000 Rings

 

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - Bells will toll tonight through Friday in

Shepherdstown and other communities in the United States and overseas,

marking the one-year anniversary of a British study concluding that

approximately 100,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the invasion and

occupation of the country.

 

The vigil, called 100,000 Rings, is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at the

McMurran Hall wall at King and German streets, according to news release

from the Shepherdstown-based group West Virginia Peace. A bell will be rung

each minute until 9:30 p.m. to represent the death of an Iraqi attributed to

the war and occupation, the release stated.

 

According to the Web site www.iraqmortality.org<http://www.iraqmortality.org>,

peace organizations in approximately 100 communities in the United States,

United Kingdom, Switzerland and elsewhere will be participating in the

vigil.

 

" We are appalled by the silence surrounding the suffering and death of the

Iraqi people, caught on a battlefield without borders in the crossfire of a

war they didn't start or invite, " the news release stated.

 

According to the release, the protest marks one year since the Oct. 29,

2004, the publication of a study in the British medical journal, The Lancet,

estimating " 100,000 Iraqis have died as a consequence of the U.S. occupation

of Iraq. "

 

According to the article that appeared in The Lancet, the study was based on

a survey of approximately 1,000 families comprising more than 7,800 people

in 33 communities. The estimate was of the number of excess deaths not

attributable to natural causes since the war began in 2003.

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