Letter: Iraq's medicine

Sir: As Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, Edward Said and Howard Zinn point out (letter, 21 January), the US government is currently engaged in legal action against four members of our sister organisation, Voices in the Wilderness US. Each of the four is facing fines of $10,000 or more, and the organisation has been told that it will be fined $120,000. Their crime is to have hand-delivered "medicines and toys" to children's wards in Iraqi hospitals over the past three years without official authorisation.

I travelled to Iraq on a joint US/UK Voices delegation last February to take medicines to children's wards in Baghdad. Our medicines were seized at Heathrow by British Customs, and we were arrested on our return and threatened with prosecution (with a maximum sentence of five years' imprisonment). Despite this, Voices in the Wilderness UK continues to organise sanctions- breaking delegations. We may be voices in the wilderness, but we will not be silenced by government threats.

MILAN RAI

Voices in the Wilderness UK

London N2