The good die young—again.

GOOD DIE YOUNG---AGAIN: Maria Ruzicka only 28 when she was killed in Iraq in April, but she had made her mark as a persistent advocate for the civilian casualties of war, first in Afghanistan and then in Iraq. She founded the organization known as Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, which attempted to verify civilian casualties, and she--along with Vermont senator Patrick Leahy--helped craft a program to assist them.

"I decided not to take a position on the war but to try to do the right humanitarian thing," Ruzicka said in late 2003. "No one can heal the wounds that have been inflicted; you just have to recognize that people have been harmed." Ruzicka was one week away from returning from Iraq when her car was caught between a military convoy and a suicide bombing attack (Publishers Weekly, April 19; Capital Times, April 20).

COPYRIGHT 2005 The Christian Century Foundation
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