Mon, Mar 31, 2003 - Page 3 News List

Newsmaker: US protester has long tradition of fighting for rights

VETERAN CAMPAIGNER American Lynn Miles, who burned his passport to protest against the war in Iraq, has been a part of the human-rights movement in Taiwan since the 1970s

By Monique Chu  /  STAFF REPORTER

The government has shown little in the way of anti-war sentiment, with most officials staunch supporters of the US in its drive for regime change in Iraq.

Miles showed little displeasure toward his friends in the government, saying only that some of them had urged him not to take the drastic move of burning his passport.

Miles, from New York City, stressed his sympathy for the innocent people who will be victimized by the US-led war in Iraq.

"My thoughts are first for the children of the world, including my own, and including the children of the soldiers of both sides, Iraqi and American, who will soon been orphaned," Miles said in a statement entitled "Burning for Peace: Why I destroy my US passport."

"My heart goes out also to the families of the 500,000-some Iraqi children that UNICEF estimates died between 1991 and 1998, thanks not only to the bombing of hospitals and water purification facilities, but also as a result of the cruel economic sanctions," Miles said.

Miles, who served at the human rights and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) desk at the DPP's department of international affairs in 1996, also criticized the views of many Taiwanese.

"It is blind folly to continue to regard the US as a dependable ally. ... If the ruling circles are willing to think of Americans as expendable in their grasping for material riches -- oil, the arms trade -- then what makes you think that they will stand with you in your hour of need?" said Miles, who now works for the office of the vice president on a project basis.

Although burning one's passport does not lead to the automatic renouncement of one's US citizenship, Miles must reapply for his passport if he intends to return to the US to see his wife, who is ill.

But the human-rights activist in his no-nonsense tone said he would only consider reapplying for one after the war comes to an end.

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