Several dozen Georgetown students held a candlelight vigil last night in Red Square in memory of the American soldiers and Iraqi civilians who have died since the U.S. invasion, kicking off a week of events to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the start of the war.

“This is a night where we come together and put aside our differences to remember the sanctity of all human life,” Bhavna Bharvani (COL ’08), president of Interfaith Council, said during the vigil’s opening speech.

Organized by the Iraq Remembrance Week Organizing Committee – a group consisting of several graduate students from the Arab Studies Program – the week of events aims to spread awareness of humanitarian concerns in the Iraq War. Film screenings, panel discussions and speeches by human rights activists, government officials and scholars will take place throughout the week.

Meagan Bridges (GRD ’08), a member of the organizing committee, said that the week’s events are non-political and aimed to recognize the losses and sacrifices that have resulted from the war.

“It’s not about knowing the statistics but . really personalizing the situation for everyone,” Bridges said.

Marwa Alkhairo (GRD ’08), who as an Iraqi-American has lost several relatives in the Iraq war, organized the committee last year.

“Pain of loss, pain of death … pain of losing a loved one is blind to religion, blind to race, blind to ethnicity,” Alkhairo said. “Tears of an Iraqi mother are the same as tears of an American mother.”

Bridges said that these programs throughout the week will help educate students about the effects the war has on individuals.

“We want to focus as much as possible on the universal humanitarian situations rather than any political issues or religious issues – something that everybody can relate to because everyone is human,” she said.

The week’s events will conclude Friday night in Reiss Science Building with a festival featuring various Iraqi works of art, music and literature. Bridges said that after the week she hopes participants will establish more connections with Iraqi culture and people.

“I would like to see people have a closer personal relationship with Iraq, whatever form that takes,” Bridges said. “I feel that a sense of cultural comradeship is one of the fundamental ways we can work toward any solution.”

The events on Georgetown’s campus followed several other demonstrations in Washington, D.C., over the weekend, including a march on Saturday of anti-war advocates on the Pentagon.

GU College Democrats and Interfaith Council co-sponsored the vigil.

Joe Hack (COL ’09), vice chair of GU College Republicans, said that he thinks having events such as the vigil and recognizing humanitarian efforts is important, but added that the sacrifices of soldiers should not be forgotten.

“We are all for having the remembrances,” Hack said. “We respect it. I think it’s good.”

Hack also said that College Republicans will be organizing a prayer service next week in memory of the troops who died in the war.