Christian anti-war activist leads vigil to protest Biden sending cluster bombs to Ukraine
A Christian anti-war activist led a nonviolent demonstration outside the White House to protest President Joe Biden’s decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine and pray for a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine.
The Rev. Patrick Mahoney, the director of the Washington, D.C.-based Christian Defense Coalition, led a demonstration Friday on the public sidewalk outside of the White House. The event, "Say No To Cluster Bombs/White House Peace & Prayer Vigil,” was held in response to the ongoing war in Ukraine and Biden's announcement that his administration is arming Ukrainian forces with cluster munitions.
Mahoney, a longtime pro-life and anti-war activist, contends that supplying Ukraine with cluster munitions is a "dangerous escalation in the Ukraine-Russian war that will put innocent families and their children at risk.”
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“First of all, as Christians, we believe that the greatest transformative agent we have for change is prayer,” the activist told The Christian Post in a Friday interview. “I often say we don't have to be the victims of history, but through prayer, we can see God shift, shape and transform history.”
According to Mahoney, around eight people, including members of his organization, attended the demonstration. In addition to members of Mahoney’s group, Catholic peace workers and an Ethiopian organization also joined the protest.
The Christian activist explained that demonstrators prayed against the shipping of cluster munitions and for a peace proposal to come forward from the Biden administration.
“And we also stood as a prophetic witness for peace, for human rights, and for justice,” Mahoney said.
Last month, Biden told CNN opinion host Fareed Zakaria that he followed his Defense Department’s recommendation to temporarily supply Ukraine with cluster munitions until the United States can produce more 155 mm howitzer artillery munitions. The U.S. had already supplied Ukraine with more than 1.5 million rounds of the munitions but Ukraine wants more, The Associated Press reported in April.
As CNN reported, the United States and Ukraine are not signatories under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which outlawed munitions in more than 100 countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Biden made the decision to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine as the war rages on after a year-and-a-half without a peace agreement between Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“They’re trying to get through those trenches and stop those tanks from rolling. But it was not an easy decision,” Biden told Zakaria. “We’re not signatories to that agreement, but it took me a while to be convinced to do it.”
“But the main thing is they either have the weapons to stop the Russians now — keep them from stopping the Ukrainian offensive through these areas — or they don’t,” he continued. “And I think they needed them.”
In June, a coalition of U.S. organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International USA, sent a letter to Biden expressing concerns about the transfer of cluster munitions to Ukraine. The letter urged Biden to reject calls from Congress and Ukrainian leaders to transfer the weapons, citing the potential harm to civilians and the international prohibition on cluster munitions.
“Cluster munitions have been used repeatedly by the Russian military since its full-scale invasion in February of 2022, with devastating impacts on civilians and civilian objects, including homes, hospitals, and schools, according to Human Rights Watch,” the letter states. “The Ukrainian military has also used cluster munitions on multiple occasions.”
In the document, the organizations highlighted an April 2022 attack by Russia involving cluster munitions that killed at least 58 civilians and injured over 100 others in the city of Kramatorsk. According to the letter, this is one of many reported cluster munition attacks in Ukraine since the invasion began in February 2022.
“Were the United States to transfer these prohibited weapons, it would run counter to the global consensus, embodied in the 123 countries who are signatories or states parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of these weapons,” the organizations warned.
The organizations believe that this would make the United States a “global outlier” and harm efforts to promote arms control agreements and maintain coalitions that have helped with supporting Ukraine.
According to data recorded by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, there were 23,606 civilian casualties in Ukraine from Feb. 24, 2022, to May 7 of this year, with the organization reporting 8,791 deaths and 14,815 injuries.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
