http://wagingnonviolence.org/author/aypv/
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/hakim-discusses-afghan-youth-peace-volunteers-interviewed-by-david-swanson/
http://www.kathykellytour.org/?page_id=80
The
APVs' interest in coming to the U.S. stems from an invitation
they've received to accompany the U.S.-Mexico "Caravan
of Peace" which is traveling across Mexico and the U.S. later
this summer, campaigning for an end to drug wars and the violence
they entail. Hakim and the APVs have been in contact with
internationally renowned poet-activist Dr. Javier Sicilia who is
leading the caravan after losing his son to Mexico's drug war.
Sicilia's son, who was near completion of his studies to be a
public health care professional, was found smothered to death in the
trunk of a car after a murder attributed to drug war violence.
Sicilia wrote a poem in homage to his son and then declared that it
was the last poem he would ever write. Instead, he vowed to dedicate
himself to nonviolently resisting drug wars and drug related
violence.
We
want the APVs to be able to work with him, and speak to Americans on
this issue. Hakim has known since his past volunteer work with
Singapore's Anti-Narcotics Association and Teen Challenge (a drug
rehabilitation center), that criminalizing drug use and building even
more prisons around the addicted only exacerbates what is a medical
and not a judicial (or military) problem. Now we have an opportunity
to bring Hakim for a ten-day stretch of the Caravan through
Midwestern and northeastern U.S. cities, ending in Washington, D.C.
Singaporeans
are not required to obtain a visa for entry to the U.S. However,
Hakim had previously chosen to forego the waiver right, in 2010, and
applied for a visa along with two Afghan Peace Volunteers, Abdulhai
and Faiz, hoping that if he accompanied them, they would be less
intimidated by the application process and the interview which is
held inside a labyrinthine U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. In
retrospect, it might have been an unfortunate choice. The U.S.
consular official in Kabul rejected all three of their applications,
and once you've been rejected, it's quite difficult to obtain a
visa the next time you apply.
Hakim reflects, "I remember the three of us walking out of the
Embassy onto the guarded streets feeling dejected. I noticed 13 year
old Abdulhai's despondence and heavy feet; it hurt me that young
Afghan students who were trying to figure out a non-violent way of
life were quickly getting discouraged. Reconciliation work isn't
easy."
On
Friday, June 29, 2012, Hakim's visa application in Singapore was
again refused. Now, with two rejections, the likelihood of Hakim
arriving in the U. S. on time to be part of the Peace Caravan seems
slim.
And
yet, the State Department or a U.S. consular office does listen and,
with sufficient appeals, has been known to grant subsequent visas
upon reapplication.
And so we urge readers hopeful for Hakim's work, and any of their contacts that they feel will be supportive of and inspired by it, to immediately email the following, asking that Dr. Wee Teck Young be issued a non-immigrant U.S. visa. Please visit the Voices for Creative Nonviolence website, www.vcnv.org for sample letters of support and addresses to which they can be sent. Kathy Kelly (Kathy@vcnv.org) co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a Chicago based campaign to end military and economic violence 773-8778-3815
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