Marla Ruzicka

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Marla Ruzicka (December 31 1976 – April 16, 2005), of Lakeport, California, was an American Green Party activist and aid worker who was killed by a car bomb blast in Baghdad. She founded the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC), an organization that assists Iraqi victims of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.

Marla Ruzicka

Following the fall of Baghdad to the US-led coalition in April 2003, her CIVIC activities focused on the organization of door-to-door surveys to obtain first-hand accounts of civilian casualties that had been killed, injured, abused, displaced, or made homeless as a result of military action.

Ruzicka had ten years of human rights organizing experience. Prior to launching the project in Iraq, she was based in Kabul, Afghanistan. Ruzicka worked with the San Francisco-based human rights organization, Global Exchange, to pressure the US government to set up a fund for Afghan families harmed in Operation Enduring Freedom. She arrived in Kabul only a few days after the Taliban were removed from power. In Afghanistan, she conducted a survey on the military campaign effects on Afghan civilians to apply for compensation and aid.

In July 2002, Ruzicka began working with USAID and the Senate Appropriations Committee to allocate money to rebuild the homes of families that had suffered losses as a result of military action. After receiving CIVIC's first report, Patrick Leahy – the Democratic Senator for Vermont – sponsored legislation to provide $10 million in U.S. aid to innocent Iraqis who had been harmed by the US military.

"Marla Ruzicka is out there saying, 'Wait, everybody. Here is what is really happening. You'd better know about this.' We have whistle blowers in industry. Maybe sometimes we need whistle blowers in foreign policy." – Senator Patrick Leahy.

In the days and weeks after her death in Baghdad, the story of Marla's life and work received widespread international coverage. The journalistic coverage of her extraordinary journey from California to Baghdad (via Afghanistan) ranged from articles that broadly praised her tenacity, courage and compassion through to more conservative minded comment (mainly emanating from the United States) that denounced her perceived role in a 'leftist' campaign to undermine the reputation and legitimacy of ongoing US military operations in Iraq. It seems likely that Marla Ruzicka and her significant campaigning legacy will remain a potentially divisive topic of conversation in American political circles for a number of years to come.

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Categories: NPOV disputes | 1976 births | 2005 deaths | Activists