CPTnet
10 December 2005
DULUTH, MN: A plea for peacemakers in Iraq
by Michele Naar-Obed
[Note: The following Op-Ed by CPT reservist Michele Naar-Obed is reprinted
with permision from the Duluth News Tribune.]
By now the world has learned of the four members of the Christian Peacemaker
Teams who are missing in Iraq. I know two of them personally. Jim Loney,
who is from the Toronto Catholic Worker community, and I were in Iraq
together twice. The first time, in January 2003, Jim and I were among
occupants in an SUV when its tire blew, flipping the vehicle. One of our
colleagues, George Weber, was killed. Two of us were sent to the hospital. I
regained consciousness while upside down in the vehicle, and Jim's voice was
the first that I heard. I remember him asking if everyone was OK.
Tom Fox is a very reflective person. He is a Quaker from Clearbrook,
Va.--the father of two grown children who is an accomplished musician and a
great cook. I met him in August 2004 at Clam Lake, Wis., as he was
undergoing training to become a full-time CPT worker. I saw him again in
Chicago this summer while I was doing my training. He had already spent much
of the year in Iraq and went back in early September.
I don't know Norman Kember, who is 74, a lifelong pacifist and a retired
teacher of medical students at St. Bartholemew's Hospital in London, or
Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, who is studying for a master's degree in English
literature in New Zealand. I don't have to know them personally to know that
they are motivated by the same desire as all of us in CPT, which is to be an
organized nonviolent alternative to war in places where there is lethal
conflict.
Christian Peacemaker Teams began in 1984 as a call for Christians to devote
the same discipline and self sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies
devote to war. The CPT-Iraq team has maintained a consistent presence in
Baghdad, living unarmed outside the Green Zone since October 2002. We have
been invited into the country by many Iraqi based organizations. Together,
our work has been to reduce violence, ensure human rights for all Iraqis,
document and report violations of those rights, and to bring the voice and
face of the ordinary Iraqi into the Western eye as we build bridges and call
for an end to the occupation of Iraq. We have no political agenda and no
economic or religious motivations. It is perhaps a bitter irony that the
demands of those holding our friends is the immediate release of all Iraqi
prisoners held in U.S. detention centers throughout Iraq. That has been a
large part of CPT's work since the occupation began. Since August 2003, the
team has tried to locate detainees lost in the maze of detention centers,
often at the request of frenzied family members. The team developed the
"Adopt-a-Detainee" program asking folks in the U.S. to pressure their
representatives to locate specific lost prisoners, to investigate reasons
for their detainment and to begin a speedy release process when warranted.
When I was there in 2004, forces from the military base in Balad, just
outside of Baghdad, would make sweeps of "insurgents," picking up every male
in the house at raids at 2 or 3 a.m. They would be taken off and family
members would have no idea where they were sent. We took human rights
lawyers to the base with us and would try to serve as a bridge between the
lawyers and the base commanders. We would try to facilitate some system so
that people could at least be tracked.
CPT was one of the first groups to compile and report cases of abuse and
torture in U.S.-controlled prisons in Iraq. The exposure of that scandal and
the massacre in Fallujah resulted in virtually total loss of U.S.
credibility around the world and certainly in Iraq. Given the years of
warfare, violence, bloodshed and trauma, it is not a big surprise that
desperate acts such as the taking of our friends Norman, Tom, Jim and
Harmeet could happen. We do not and will not condone the use of violence in
any form, whether it be the violence of aggression or the violence of
retaliation. We recognize violence as a vicious cycle that must be stopped
by appealing to the innate goodness that exists in the hearts of all human
beings, including the members of the Swords of Righteousness Brigade.
There's much work left to do in Iraq, and we long to be a positive force
working to counter all the fear, resentment and intimidation felt by the
Iraqi people. We appeal for the safe release of our friends. We thank all of
the Muslim leaders from every sect in Iraq and from across the Arab region
for their strong support and appeals for our friends release. We continue to
support all nonviolent forms of resolution to this crisis and we pray for
healing, forgiveness, the return of compassion and reconciliation among all
peoples.
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Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) seeks to enlist the whole church in
organized, nonviolent alternatives to war and places teams of trained,
peacemakers in regions of lethal conflict. Originally a violence-reduction
initiative of the historic peace churches (Mennonite, Church of the Brethren
and Quaker), CPT now enjoys support and membership from a wide range of
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