La Sabana, Oaxaca, Mexico -- On Tuesday, April 27, paramilitaries attacked an aid convoy and killed two human rights workers, identified in news sources as Alberta "Bety" Cariño Trujillo, director of CACTUS (Center of Community Support Working Together) and Jyri Jaakkola, a Finnish human rights observer. Cariño was one of the community leaders Christian Peacemaker Teams accompanied during its presence in Oaxaca in December 2006. Jaakkola was one of several human rights workers accompanying the caravan.

Hi Folks,

I went to Phoenix today to join hundreds of other concerned citizens protesting the signing of SB1070, the unjust and racist immigration legislation by Gov. Brewer.  It is hard to believe the Arizona legislature chose this path.  I held a sign [displaying] "I WILL NOT COMPLY.”  This states clearly that I will not comply [with] the call to turn in my neighbor or any other person I might know who I think might be undocumented.  The impact of this legislation on the Hispanic community in southern AZ and all over AZ is enormous.  Racial profiling is already a big problem here and now this legislation will heighten the tension and fear felt here in Tucson (especially after 800 [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents raided South Tucson a few weeks ago—some wearing ski masks, all armed.)

PRAYERS FOR PEACEMAKERS, Wed., Apr. 28, 2010

Pray for the many indigenous communities and individuals devastated by the Indian residential school system. Pray that each succeeding generation of non-natives will learn and own this history of injustice and seek right relationships.

Doug Pritchard
Christian Peacemaker Teams
Toronto, Canada

"That's insane!"  I often insist as Palestinian friends tell me about one more restriction in their daily lives.  The following list I have compiled mentions some of these insanities.

1.  
   1. In Bethlehem, workers arrive at the Gilo checkpoint to go to East Jerusalem a few hours early in order to get to their work just on the other side of the checkpoint on time.
   2. A friend who was standing with Palestinians for 1.5 hours inside the Gilo Checkpoint reports seeing an Israeli poster with the caption, "Feel the Glory."

Last month, CPT-Iraq interviewed eleven Peshmerga (Kurdish armed forces, literally “those who face death”) and Iraqi Border Patrol officers whom members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have harassed because of their support of the Goran (Change) List.  Since that interview, many more stories of persecution have surfaced, cracking the façade of a completely fair election.

A typical day in a Red Shirt camp in Bangkok starts when a few of the Red Shirts—mostly peasants, day workers, and members of hill tribes—wake up for kitchen detail.  They start the stove burning and heat water to brew coffee for everyone.

Guys, you are missing a very important stage in Thai history.  The Thai Prachachon (people) are out of the bottle.  Nobody can force them back in the bottle that confined them for so many years.

…I am glad I kept the small bottle of alcohol, vinegar, and cotton balls that was given to me by the Red Shirts.  Vinegar easily removes the sting from the eyes from the tear gas that smells like garlic. 

Hey, they are shooting real bullets now.  I have to go since the e-mail cafe I am using is very vulnerable to stray bullets.

A masked Israeli settler youth threatened and physically assaulted two Italian human rights workers on 5 April as they walked to Tuwani after accompanying Palestinian shepherds near the village of Tuba.  The two members of Operation Dove were walking through an uncultivated Palestinian field near the Israeli settlement of Ma'on and were about fifty meters from Road 317 when a young man approached them.  Although his face was partly covered, they recognised him as the same person who had been verbally harassing the shepherds earlier in the day.  The settler yelled threats at them, ordered them to go back to where they came from, and said he would call police.  When the Italians told him they did not mind if he called the police, he kicked one of them on the thigh and then ran away from them in the direction of Ma'on settlement.

23 March 
Israeli soldiers entered a house in the Old City, and ordered the entire family onto the roof.  A soldier at a permanent post on the roof of an adjacent house then ordered the three teen-aged girls to stand to one side.  They accused one thirteen year-old of throwing a stone.  More soldiers came to escort her from her house.  A Palestinian woman shouted at the soldiers, “She's a girl!  This is a girl!  You can't arrest her.”  This woman was finally allowed to accompany the girl to Kiryat Arba police station, where police questioned her and later released her.

PRAYERS FOR PEACEMAKERS, Wed., Apr. 21, 2010

Palestinian civil society has called for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights. Christian Peacemaker Teams endorses this nonviolent campaign. Pray that it will finally bring justice and reconciliation.

Doug Pritchard
Christian Peacemaker Teams
Toronto, Canada