CPTnet
March 24, 2003
IRAQ UPDATE: 8:30 am/12:30 am EST

as reported to Doug Pritchard

The team at the Al-Daar Hotel reported that they had survived another night
of heavy bombing from B-52s. It felt like the bombs were bigger or perhaps
closer, although they were not close enough to do damage in the immediate
neighbourhood. The last bombs fell an hour earlier and some also fell twice
during the previous day.

The CPT and Iraq Peace Team (IPT) members camped out at the Al Wathab Water
Treatment Plant adjacent to Medical Cityhad reported eight hours earlier
that no bombs had fallen near this complex. They had not heard recently from
the IPTers at the Al Fanar Hotel.

There is a lot of smoke over the city from both burning buildings and pits
of burning oil. The blackness in the sky looks like an approaching storm and
it obscures the sun. Team members visited several wounded civilians at the
Yarmouk Hospital downtown. The bombing of a nearby government building had
caused wounds from shrapnel and flying glass and head injuries from pressure
wave concussion.

Yesterday several team members had joined the worship service at St
Raphael's Catholic Church. Others met with Margaret Hassan, Director of CARE
International. The UN food distribution has stopped and while some private
food shops are open, prices are climbing very rapidly as shortages develop.
The water supply and telephones have stayed on. The power went out for a few
hours during the bombing but is back on.

The team says that Iraqis are not shocked nor awed by what they have seen.
While the bombs are coming from on high, they say that God is higher. They
say that God looked down on the Tower of Babel (south of Baghdad) and found
it insignificant. According to the Genesis 11, the people of Babel had said,
"Come let us build a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a
name for ourselves." But God destroyed their high tech tower, and frustrated
their attempt to invade the abode of God, and then "the LORD scattered them
abroad over the face of all the earth."

As of this writing, the CPT delegation currently stalled in Amman
anticipates that they will receive visas to enter Iraq after all and be able
to join the team in Baghdad.

Gene Stoltzfus, director of CPT reports from Chicago , "The world is in
conversation as never before about the appropriateness of bombs, infantry
units, attack helicopters and all forms of military engagement to resolve
conflicts. Christians have an unprecedented and historic opportunity to
engage their friends, colleagues and neighbors about nonviolence. All in
CPT are unified and encouraged by the signs of nonviolence and the
conversations and public actions currently undertaken to oppose this war.
Your prayers and actions are incredibly important. "