Below you will find Updates from Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) members located in Iraq. They serve as witnesses and as peaceful intermediaries, especially, as you will note, between families of detainees and the authorities. "Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative of the historic peace churches(Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and Quakers) with support and membership from a range of Catholic and Protestant denominations. Supporting violence-reduction efforts around the world is its mandate."
I have been on the mailing list for quite some time. If you are on it, you will receive similar reports from people in Hebron, Vietnam, and Colombia. The reports certainly give a much more down-to-earth, real-world, every-day picture of what is going on. To receive news or discussion of CPT issues by e-mail, fill out the
form found on the WEB page at http://www.cpt.org/subscribe.phpCPTnet
IRAQ UPDATE: October 29 - November 6, 2004
Friday, October 29
News outlets reported the kidnapping of a Polish Iraqi activist with
whom Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) had worked in the spring. An Iraqi humanrights leader from Kerbala called the team and advised them not to travel outside their neighborhood for the time being. He spoke with the team about a CPT presence in Kerbala but said that the roads were impassible right now.
Sheila Provencher visited some neighbors on CPT's street. They were
delighted to see her and insisted that it was acceptable to visit them,
but said CPT should not venture beyond the neighborhood. One neighbor said, "Iraqi elections will not make the situation better.
Only when the American soldiers leave will it get better, because then there will be no one to fight. Still, we want the soldiers to stay for now. We want them to bomb Fallujah, we want them to bomb Ramadi."
Saturday, October 30
At the request of a U.N. representative, the team arranged for several of CPT's Iraqi human rights colleagues to meet with him in Baghdad.The team decided that CPT's presence in Baghdad, based on the unanimous advice of Iraqi colleagues, should be limited to three or four members for the present.
Sunday, October 31
The team's translator visited and suggested that once an important team project is finished, the team should relocate to Amman until Iraqi elections are over. "We are in the bottleneck right now," he said. "All Iraqis are staying in their houses." His neighborhood experiences daily violent clashes between resistance members he terms "foreign fighters," and the Iraqi police and national guard.
Provencher and Tom Fox attended church in their neighborhood. The community was glad to see them and seemed less fearful than the previous week. In the evening several Iraqi friends visited. One hoped that Bush would lose the election, but said that many Iraqis she knows want Bush to winbecause they think he will feel obligated to finish what he started in Iraq.
Monday, November 1
Provencher spoke by phone with an Iraqi Catholic priest who was eager to meet the team. He sees the root of the violence in lack of education and is working on several projects, including a part-time college, to respond to the crisis.
A friend who has known CPT since 2002 came for dinner. He is making plans to leave Iraq within weeks, because the situation is so unstable. He said that recently a man was shot in the face outside the friend's home. The friend warned CPT about kidnappers and suggested the team move to a more secure area.
Tuesday, November 2
Several friends visited throughout the day. One brought enough snack cakes to last for the next month. He said that he thought maybe the team could not go out because of the kidnapping threat, and wanted to make sure that the team had enough to eat.
A man whose brother Multinational Forces (MNF) have detained visited the team. Adnan Talib, (who is part of CPT's Adopt-a-Detainee Letter Writing campaign) has been incarcerated since last spring, but his family still has not been able to learn the formal charges against him. The family said they planned to write Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson in Detention Operations directly.
A human rights worker whom U.S. Forces had detained brought documents detailing his experience in detention. The team made plans for him to meet with their UN contact.
Wednesday, November 3
Several mortar explosions landed in the Green Zone in the morning. Provencher spoke with an Iraqi human rights colleague who told her that many people had come to her asking if she could take them to CPT for help, but she had told them that CPT left the country. She was worried that CPT was at risk because of the recent kidnappings.
Thursday, November 4
Matthew Chandler and Fox met with the family of a detainee. Fox and Provencher met with a U.N. representative. Several civic and
religious leaders from Fallujah had come to him to ask for U.N. mediation in Fallujah. He asked team members to alert their contacts about the impending crisis in Fallujah. He and the team also discussed the ongoing reality of missing persons in Iraq--both under the former regime and under the current occupation.
A friend visited for dinner. He brought a cake that said "Bush" on it,
because he was happy that Bush had won the election.
Friday, November 5
Cliff Kindy arrived from Amman to join the team. The human rights colleague from Kerbala called to say that he could not
come to Baghdad today as planned because severe fighting had blocked the roads.
Chandler and Kindy visited neighbors in the evening. One commented, "This attack on Fallujah will not defeat the resistance; it will make the resistance spread more and more."
The sound of jets overhead continued through the evening.
Saturday, November 6
Chandler and Kindy went to get Chandler's exit visa, then did errands in the neighborhood. Both noted that people on the street seemed fairly relaxed.
The team's translator helped the team make phone calls to check on
families of detainees. He said, "Most Iraqi people do not want to welcome foreigners to their homes right now, because others might suspect them of working with the occupation."
The sound of jets overhead continued all day. The team sent out an
Urgent Action asking people to call the State Department to insist on a halt of the attack on Fallujah, and to ask for the use of nonviolent means to resolve the conflict such as direct negotiation or U.N. mediation.
CPTnet
November 6, 2004
IRAQ UPDATE: October 19 - 28, 2004
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Tom Fox and Matt Chandler, following the advice of Iraqi friends and
partners, spent the day inside for security reasons. They did as much
contact work via e-mail and phone as was possible to follow up on some pending detainee and human rights issues.
The head of an Iraqi human rights organization based outside of Baghdad stopped by for a meeting. He wanted to update CPT on the work of his organization as well as bring information regarding two detainee cases with which he would like CPT to assist. He expressed his gratitude for CPT's work and extended a warm invitation for CPT to work with his organization in the future.
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
The news that Margaret Hassan had been kidnapped that morning was uppermost on Fox and Chandler's minds. She was a valued contact and had hosted several CPT visiting delegations at her CARE office. Several journalists interviewed Fox and Chandler, and the team received calls and emails from journalists, CPTers, friends and supporters regarding CPT's continued presence in what seems to be a downward spiral towards chaos. Fox and Chandler had an extensive discussion on current security guidelines and made some modifications to team activities that reflected the heightened
concerns.
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Fox and Chandler decided to stay inside their flat all day. They
contacted their translator to set up an appointment with the family of a detainee who was part of CPT's detainee campaign. Fox and Chandler also gave their translator the names of four Iraqi contacts they would like to consult regarding whether to continue CPT's presence in Iraq.
Friday, October 22, 2004
A journalist for a U.S.- based radio network came over to interview Fox and Chandler regarding their views on the upcoming U.S. elections.
Saturday, October 23, 2004
A family member of a detainee who is part of CPT's Adopt-a-Detainee campaign stopped by to get help in writing a letter to the head of the legal division of the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights. The family has not had any success obtaining information on the nature of the charges against the detainee. U.S. military security forces have held him for seven months. The family member drafted a letter and Chandler called the Ministry to try to get an appointment. The head of the legal division was going to be unavailable for most of the week but suggested the team drop off the letter. The team went to the ministry and delivered the letter and CPT's detainee file to him. He
said he was meeting with U.S. military officials the next day and would give the information to them.
Sunday, October 24, 2004
A friend of CPT dropped by for a visit. He is currently living on the
street and sees very little hope for his future or the future of his
country. Later that evening Chandler and Fox went to a local Catholic church for evening mass. It was Fox's impression that team contacts who attend the church were in a greater state of fear and anxiety than at any time since Fox arrived in Baghdad a month earlier.
Monday, October 25, 2004
Fox, Chandler and their translator traveled to visit a family to gather
information related to the detainee case. Even though it was the middle of the day during Ramadan and the family was fasting, they prepared a typical Iraqi lunch of six courses for Fox and Chandler. Later, Fox and Chandler met with their translator regarding some
CPTnet [business].
November 6, 2004
Below is a letter not from Iraq but from Ramallah, on the West Bank, to give you some flavor of that place.
RAMALLAH: Hills of God
by Joe Carr
[NOTE: the following is an excerpt of a letter that CPTer Joe Carr sent to his supporters on October 25, 2004.)
Ramallah (which means "God's hill" in Arabic) is the de facto capitol
city of Palestine, since Israel has annexed East Jerusalem. Ramallah is the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority (or what's left of it), where Yasser Arafat is kept on house arrest in his compound. The city is a hubbub of Western activity (evidence of internationals and the culture they bring with them is everywhere). The city is also home to a small but significant percentage of Palestinian Christians, and since I was there on a Sunday, my friend and I decided to go to church. We attended the Ramallah Quaker meeting, one of three Quaker meetings in the entire Middle East.
Before the silence began, the director explained to us why we were
meeting in a school classroom rather than in their historic Quaker
meetinghouse. Israeli soldiers reportedly invaded the meetinghouse, turned it into a war zone, and destroyed everything inside, including one entire wall. The Ramallah Quakers couldn't afford to restore it and were planning to sell, but the Palestinian Authority declared it a historical site, making it illegal to sell it. Thanks to a few U.S. Quaker meetings (especially one in Philadelphia), they are now renovating the meetinghouse and it should be open soon. It was wonderful to have an hour of collective silent meditation and prayer in the midst of this conflict.
In addition to the Christian contingent, many of the Muslims in
Ramallah are secular. Combine this with a load of young western liberals, and you get the Las Vegas of Palestine. Bier Zeit University is located just north of the city, and it is quite the college atmosphere, the only place where one can regularly find alcohol. Beir Zeit in rabic means "Wells of Olive Oil", and it is here where the idea of throwing paint bombs at Israeli soldiers arose. Now one can frequently see Israeli jeeps driving by covered in bright pink paint, and no guard tower has escaped colorization.
The Beir Zeit shebab are not only proud of their resistance to the
Israelis, but also brag of being independent from the Palestinian Authority and the Muslim hierarchy. One young man told me a story of a time when the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade declared a general strike because one of their leaders was killed; they drove through Bier Zeit announcing on a loud speaker that everyone must close, and a group of shebab forced them to drive through the town announcing a retraction.
My comrade hit the table with laugher as he told this story, and we all suddenly noticed the bubbles of carbon dioxide rising quickly from the bottom of his beer to the top, becoming frothy white foam. We all sat and stared, mesmerized for a few moments, and it made me think about Palestinian resistance. Individuals, rising up together, create something seemingly separate from the whole, but are truly an essential part of the fizzy beverage that is society, I wait anxiously for my chance to join the froth.
