Janet Ashby Testifies
at Rivers of Blood Start Here Trial

Your Honor, My name is Janet Ashby. I have worked in Cambodia and with Cambodians since 1981, as my personal contribution to reparation for the illegal acts of war of the US in that country. (In fact, I just came back from Cambodia on Monday for this hearing, and am jet lagged, so please don't feel offended if I look sleepy.)

I have worked in refugee border camps, refugee resettlement, integrated community development, supporting the re-emergence of civil society, reducing the masses of illegal post-conflict weapons, and supporting police, judges, and prosecutors in their efforts to stop human trafficking.

That experience partly underlies my conviction that my country is engaged in an illegal, immoral, and extremely counter-productive war in Iraq. Because of my conviction, I was part of this group expressing ourselves about that war in a peaceful, legal, and orderly way on September 20th, 2007. I was arrested that day, for the first time in my life.

I have struggled with what to say today. I know I must be brief, so instead of listing all of the ways in which we are not guilty of any of the charges against us, I am happy to affirm that the clarifications about this by my fellow defendants have been accurate. In particular, I want to clarify my intentions when I exercised my freedom of expression on September 20th. I was acting on my conviction that I am called and obligated, as a person blessed with US citizenship, to take action when I see that my country is committing international crimes and folly. My fellow defendants are addressing many points of law on this.

My intentions in participating on September 20th were rooted in direct experience – my husband was a victim of and refugee from ethnic cleansing during World War II, and I personally interviewed and recorded the testimony of hundreds of Cambodians who applied for refuge in the US in the early 1980's.

On September 20th, as today, I was convinced in every fiber of my being that I must speak out. Indeed, September 20th was not my first time to speak out. In 2002 I worked with other American citizens to organize vigils and to petition the US Embassy in Cambodia to not invade Iraq illegally. I have worked for peace in Iraq in many other ways since then, including lobbying members of Congress in their offices during the week of September 17th 2007.

As I was going to the crypt on September 20th, I was thinking of several things: - First, my sure knowledge that the US is violating international laws which the US Constitution says constitute our highest laws, and my pain that this is naked for all the world to see – for example, I have discussed this with an international lawyer who worked directly under the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; - Second, my sorrow that the US actions in Iraq justify the opinion of so many of my friends from other countries that the US is a hypocrite for telling other countries to respect the rule of law but blatantly failing to do so itself. Since the pre-emptive attack on Iraq and then Abu Ghraib and the visible erosion of civil liberties in the US, the moral standing of the US has simply melted away; - Third, my outrage that the US continues to squander US and Iraqi lives, as well as dollars and the economic well-being of our next generation; - Fourth, my grief at the long and awful reconstruction that I know Iraq faces, because I know how incredibly hard it is to recreate trust, peace, infrastructure, education, health, rule of law, and social justice in a society devastated by war and occupation; - Fifth, my certainty that the war we were protesting on September 20th is utterly counter-productive, because invasion, occupation, and torture polarize and transform ordinary citizens into people willing to undertake extreme measures, people called terrorists - the illegal US bombs in Cambodia were fabulous recruiters for the Khmer Rouge.

When I went to the Capitol building on September 20th, I carried with me several things: - The concerns I had expressed in my other lobbying efforts; - The knowledge that the Senators and Congresspersons who are supposed to represent us are not yet moved enough to take the decisions that are needed; - A T-shirt that looked bloodied, like those you see here – captivating but not offensive; and - As you can see in Prosecution Exhibit 1, I was carrying a picture of an Iraqi man and woman, who looked to me to be grieving for a child. I chose that picture as it best represented to me both the current illegal war and the many debts to the future that we are building up – an arresting picture, but not a reason to be arrested.

It was an honor to go to the Capitol in fellowship with the people who are today my co-defendants at this hearing, and who take so seriously their obligations to secure peace and stop crimes against humanity. I am glad that, because our expression was in a public place during public hours and conducted in such a respectful way, we were able to gain the interested and sympathetic attention of some of the other members of the public who were also there. I neither sang nor chanted in the crypt. I simply spoke in the name of Iraqi parents grieving for their dead, then lay down quietly as if dead. I really did appreciate that some of the arresting police officers were gentle, but I did not appreciate at all being arrested on unwarranted charges.

Many people in Cambodia know that I am on trial now. I look forward to being able to report to them that justice was exercised today. Thank you.