CPTnet
April 27, 2004

IRAQ: CPT statement on hostages and detainees in Iraq

For the past several weeks, members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) from
Iraq have joined people across the world who watch with concern and
heartache as soldiers and civilians from several countries are taken hostage
by various militia groups. We cannot imagine the families' agony as they
wonder if their loved ones will ever be freed. We deplore all such acts of
violence and injustice, and extend our prayers to the families, with hope
that the hostage situations will be resolved
peacefully.

For the past year, thousands of Iraqi families have also waited in agony for
news of their loved ones, who are held as "security detainees" by Coalition
forces. While some detainees are guilty of crimes, countless others are
innocent, swept up in raids that sometimes imprison entire villages. Others
are held for months simply because they are relatives or friends of a
suspect. All security detainees wait in
U.S.-run prison camps without trial or access to legal counsel, effectively
held hostage by a system that denies basic human dignity. Months can go by
before their families even know if they are dead or alive. Even Coalition
Provisional Authority (CPA) officials have acknowledged that the detention
system is severely flawed.

The families and friends of the hostages and the families and friends of
Iraqi detainees now share a similar suffering. Rather than allowing this
injustice and violence to further divide us, perhaps it is time to come
together, to bind up each other's wounds, and to work for solutions that
respect the human rights and dignity of all.