Remembering Marla
A tribute to Marla Ruzicka (1976-2005)

Marla Ruzicka was tragically killed in a car bomb explosion in Iraq on April 16 2005, along with her co-worker and friend Faiz Ali Salim. One year on, we take a look at what CIVIC, the organisation she founded, still has to say about the innocent victims of war, and how they choose to remember Marla.

________________________

I confess that a year ago, when I heard of the tragic death of a woman I had never heard of before that night, I cried. Marla Ruzicka, a young Californian woman, was killed by a car bomb in Baghdad on April 16 2005, along with her friend and co-worker Faiz Ali Salim. She had travelled extensively to both Afghanistan and Iraq, her main mission to try to get aid to civilians who have been harmed by the US wars in both countries. In an online journal entry on June 25 2004, she had this, almost prophetically, to say:

“Back in Baghdad and happy. A good friend of mine, advised me to keep my movements minimal in the coming days, saying "Just think of all the work you will be able to do in three months when the situation is better because you were not killed by a bomb." We know that leading up to the handover there is a high alert warning, but who knows what will happen on July 2nd or 3rd. CIVIC must continue our work. Faiz does a fantastic job when I am out of the country, but I need to be here as well. We are not taking any risks, and keeping our movements low. Well, the handover happened and thank god the last couple of days there have been no major car bombs.”

Marla founded the organisation, CIVIC (The Campaign for the Innocent Victims of Conflict), around the time that Saddam’s statue toppled from its foundations in the centre of Baghdad. While the US government and military were staging their effigy-destruction, Marla was undertaking the first door to door survey of Iraq, with the aim of trying to get a clear picture on what the number of Iraqi civilian casualties actually were. It was not until December 2005 that President Bush actually acknowledged Iraqi civilian casualties.

The aim of CIVIC has been to lobby government to recognise the needs of families inadvertently affected by war: the innocent victims left without houses and medical care. Marla’s work was beginning to bear fruit. She took her first report on Iraqi casualties and injuries to the Democratic Senator for Vermont, Patrick Leahy, who, according to CIVIC, sponsored legislation to provide U.S. aid to innocent Iraqis who were harmed in the military operations. CIVIC has adopted this legislation for its framework.

One year on, CIVIC is honouring the memory of Marla by continuing her work. Sarah Holewinski, who joined the organisation in January 2006 after years of policy and humanitarian work in Washington, New York, and internationally in India and Rwanda, wrote an op-ed piece in The Washington Post (15 April 2006) to mark the one year passing of Marla and to talk about the progress CIVIC has made in the past 12 months. “To America's credit, we've made some progress on the issue of civilian casualties,” she wrote. “The Pentagon has a program of condolence payments -- a way for the military on the ground to directly compensate a family for the death of a loved one.” She further explained that, among many other achievements, Congress created the ‘Marla Ruzicka Iraqi War Victims Fund’ and a similar fund for Afghanistan, with a total of $38 million for families and communities of those injured and killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But, adds Ms Holewinski, there is still a lot of work for CIVIC to do, explaining, “…even these are baby steps at best. The 30,000 casualties cited by Bush is the bare minimum estimate…[t]he president's spokesman was quick to say that this was not an official estimate. We know that's true, because the United States does not keep adequate records of civilian casualties. And the military's program of condolence payments -- while important -- suffers from weaknesses that prevent compensation to many families that need it most.”

Ms Holewinski is concerned that with the rise of the insurgency in Iraq, it is getting increasingly difficult for aid to get to those who desperately need it. Even worse, she adds, are the threats metered out to people if they accept help from Americans. “Although experienced military officers have learned that treating civilians well is critical to their mission, the U.S. search for an exit strategy may encourage tactics that put civilians at greater risk -- including more reliance on airstrikes to target insurgents. In populated areas, this makes it all the more likely that civilians will be hit.”

I can’t begin to describe the deeply profound effect Marla’s death had on me the night I read her obituary, quite by mistake. To have achieved so much in such a short time on earth is truly remarkable and inspiring, and reading of the progress CIVIC has made, one year on, is truly reflective of the fact that her and Fiaz will not be forgotten. Marla would be proud to know that her work is continuing to pave the way for the betterment of innocent people’s lives so devastated by war. In Marla’s own words: “To have a job where you can make things better for people? That’s a blessing. Why would I do anything else?”

Pic: Marla Ruzicka/CIVIC

This article first appeared in the The Cheers Magazine's Smokin' Mirrors weekly political column on Sunday 16 April 2006. www.thecheers.org