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: 亚洲国产美女在线观看| 国产免费啪嗒啪嗒视频看看| 中文字幕亚洲不卡在线亚瑟| 欧美又粗又大又硬又长又爽视频| 十八在线观观看免费视频| 黑人巨鞭大战丰满老妇| 在线a毛片免费视频观看| 中文字幕人妻高清乱码| 最近免费中文字幕视频高清在线看 | 国产在线视频www色| 91极品反差婊在线观看| 小蝌蚪视频在线观看www| 久久成人国产精品免费软件| 欧美日韩中文国产一区| 免费在线色视频| 肉柳高嫁03集在线播放| 国产成人一区二区三区免费视频| 91在线丨亚洲| 夫妇交换性3中文字幕| 中文字幕精品无码亚洲字| 欧洲熟妇色xxxx欧美老妇多毛 | 国产成人综合野草| 91亚洲va在线天线va天堂va国产| 尹人香蕉久久99天天拍久女久| 久久亚洲色一区二区三区| 欧美40老熟妇| 亚洲熟妇AV一区二区三区漫画| 精品国产不卡在线电影| 国产中年熟女高潮大集合| 免费在线视频你懂的| 国产精品美女www爽爽爽视频 | 18日本xxxxxxxxx视频| 天堂在线ww小说| 三个黑人上我一个经过| 日本三级欧美三级人妇英文 | 免费人成网站7777视频| 美妇岳的疯狂迎合| 国产免费久久精品99久久| 亚洲武侠欧美自拍校园| 国产肥熟女视频一区二区三区| gogogo高清在线播放|