CPT-Tuwani has released a video on YouTube showing an incident of Israeli army harassment in the South Hebron Hills village of Mufaqara.  (See 12 February 2009 CPTnet release, “AT-TUWANI: Soldiers kill Palestinian migrant worker, increase harassment of villagers in South Hebron Hills,”.

 

PRAYERS FOR PEACEMAKERS,Wed., Feb. 25, 2009

Pray for the people of eastern DR Congo. The Christian Peacemaker Team, completing a three-month exploratory visit to the region, reports that armed conflict continues over access to minerals, and so the hopes for peace are fragile.

Doug Pritchard
Christian Peacemaker Teams
Toronto, Canada

Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in Colombia has released its compilation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) violations witnessed by or reported to the Colombia team in the calendar year of 2008.  The full report is available at http://www.cpt.org/content/violations-international-humanitarian-law-colombia-december-2007-november-2008

Last November the international press depicted North Kivu, DRC, as a war zone.  Media reported homes burning, people chased by gunfire, the rapes of women, and children taken to be soldiers.  Gunfire and screams filled the TV screen.

On 21 January 2009, Rosemarie Milazzo and Cliff Kindy left in the morning darkness on a bus full of baggage and travelers, eager to get to Butembo on the way north through North Kivu to Bunia.  At the first checkpoint, soldiers laughingly said, "All is well.  The war is over."  The scene was one of movement: CNDP rebel soldiers traveling south towards incorporation into government forces, government soldiers traveling north to replace the rebels.  Further north CPTers saw Rwandan troops.  A passenger explained they had crossed the border under an agreement with the DRC government.

Friday, 6 February
In the Chumgee area, Murphy and Gish met with community leaders and leaders from border villages, the residents of which had fled because of continued bombing by Turkish forces.  Together they discussed plans for CPT to go with them back to their villages, beginning with short trips for villagers to do necessary work on their properties.  After the leaders consult with other villagers, they hope to send two people with CPT to Erbil for meetings with U.N. officials.

CPTers and villagers acknowledged that their going together into the villages does not guarantee going in safety.  One villager said, "God will bless this plan, because it is for the good of our people.  It is a holy plan."  Gish responded by saying that "God will be our protector," and then said, "We may have differences of culture and faith, but we do this for Allah/God, and because Allah wants peace and justice for all and between different groups."  The villagers nodded in agreement.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) recently integrated rebels from the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) into the country's military.  President Kabila also invited the Rwandan military to join an operation against militias of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).  Some FDLR combatants are considered responsible for the Rwandan genocide, and they control many of the mines in South and North Kivu Provinces.  Planners hope this operation stops the conflict engulfing eastern DRC for fifteen years.  But nonviolent activists are seeking to reframe the conflict, so that they, rather than violent actors, hold the initiative.

Now that the bombing of Gaza has stopped, the world is beginning to survey and record the damage.  The devastation is overwhelming.  Now I have a clearer picture of the effect of those Israeli jets flying for three weeks over At-Tuwani in the southern West Bank-about fifty miles from Gaza-while I was there.

Friday 2 January -- Accompanied by GMLK members, the team visited Mugunga 1 and Mugunga 3 camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs). They talked to families who had been forced to leave their homes because of fighting by rebel National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) soldiers. Several of the women willing to share their stories had been raped by CNDP soldiers. Young men told of CNDP and Rwandan soldiers forcibly taking children from their villages to be trained as soldiers. IDPs are living in banana-leaf huts, in deplorable conditions, with little to fill their time. Some have taken refuge in Mugunga 1 for over a year, while others fled their homes during the conflict last fall.

In violent settings, nonviolent activists need to re-frame the action so that they, rather than violent actors, hold the initiative.