RIP Marla Ruzicka

By JULIETTE ROSSANT The war in Iraq remains alive and well today, but, alas, Marla Ruzicka is not. On Saturday, April 16, 2005, she and her Iraqi colleague Faiz were killed in a suicide attack on a convoy. Her death deserves mention here because she was at heart a chef: "She kept people's spirits up by organizing weekly parties and never seemed to run out of energy," wrote her friend, NBC Producer Rachel Levin. Those parties occurred in war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan. "She made the war zones bearable and was perhaps one of the most selfless and fearless women I have known." Sometimes people like this actually brush our own lives. Marla came to my husband's office to talk about the Middle East last year, just around the time a long Washington Post article came out about her. She wanted to speak on a panel about the Middle East, but the conference she was trying for was already over-extended. They planned to work together in the near future because Marla was going to spend more time back in the States, but then she went back to Baghdad and fell out of touch. Two years earlier, in 2002, Marla had founded Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC), dedicated to civilian casualties, starting in Iraq and Afghanistan. She and her crew would located people who were killed or injured in the U.S. military campaign, documented their travails, and helped secure them compensation. She helped write up the first comprehensive list of victims by U.S. weapons, based on death certificate or victim interview. She worked with the US Congress and got $2.5 million appropriated to Afghani victims (later raised to $7.5 million) and $10 million for Iraqi victims: cash payments for food and daily living, rebuilding buildings, giving medical aid, making loans. The fate of CARE's long-time Iraq chief Margaret Hassan in October 2004 did not stop her. Marla bespoke her own epitaph last year: "You can't say something is bad unless you come in with ways to fix it." If this tale moves you, please make a donation to CIVIC in Marla's memory. Blogosphere Marla Ruzicka (1976-2005) TheFullMonte.com (video) Other articles on Marla Ruzicka: Reuters Associated Press (AP) Agence France Press (AFP) United Press International (UPI) MSNBC CNN The Guardian (UK) The New York Times The Washington Post The San Francisco Chronicle Christian Science Monitor USA Today US News & World Report Human Rights Watch News TIME Newsweek New Hampshire Independent Media Center North Texas Independent Media Center Santa Barbara Independent Media Center David Corn --> back to superchefblog