The wave of popular uprisings that swept dictators from Tunisia and Egypt has also washed through the Kurdish north of Iraq.  Every day since 17 February, thousands of people have flooded the city center of Suleimaniya (Suli), where CPT is based, demanding an end to government corruption.  Every day the façade of stability, security, and democracy has eroded further as the ruling parties answer calls for justice with firepower.  

 On the first day of protests, more than 3000 people gathered in Azadi Square, now dubbed “Freedom Square.”  When the initial rally ended peacefully, CPTers left and went to have tea.  Meanwhile, a group of about 200 demonstrators marched towards the nearby headquarters of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).  KDP militia opened fire on the protesters, killing three and injuring dozens, mostly young people.  CPTers came out into the street to the sound of ambulances and distant gunfire.

Hundreds of farmers and their supporters from human rights groups and non-governmental organizations gathered in celebratory witness as the Colombian Institute for Rural Development legally recognized the Cimitarra Valley as a Campesino Reserve Zone (ZRC) on 16 February.

The revival of ZRCs under Colombia’s current President Santos is good news for many communities in the Magdalena Medio region where CPT is based.  Created in 1996 as a way to prevent concentration of land ownership and agricultural oligarchy, but ignored by the previous Uribe administration, the ZRCs commit the government to support development projects for small producers.  Reviving the farming sector and preserving ownership of small rural properties will help stabilize communities and strengthen their economies, thus undercutting the causes of social conflict affecting the Colombian countryside.

One cannot talk about the Colombian conflict without discussing the takeover of land by multinational corporations, both through governmental processes and through armed violence (see video at http://tinyurl.com/4aavfoe).

CPT has accompanied communities from the Agriculture and Mining Federation (FEDEAGROMISBOL) in the southern part of the department of Bolívar since 2005.

A human rights report released by the Federation in February underscores grave violations in Southern Bolívar, from increased assassinations, threats, and displacement of community leaders who oppose giving up their land for development of mega-projects.

The report names two companies in particular – AngloGold Ashanti in gold mining and Daabon Group in bio-fuels and palm oil – involved in pushing communities off the land and plundering the region’s natural resources, causing serious environmental damage and economic ruin to subsistence farmers and miners.

As we go to press, the 123 families forced off their land in Las Pavas (Southern Bolívar) in July 2009 are returning home.  The Daabon company and its subsidiaries, which still produce palm oil on Las Pavas land, have used threats and intimidation to dissuade their return.  In the face of such tactics, community members prepared themselves with training in nonviolent resistance and protective measures against police brutality.

On 1 February 2011, Algonquin men Robert Lovelace and Daniel Bernard chained themselves to trees in the Beaver Pond Forest near Kanata, Ontario, to block a second day of clear-cut logging in a forest considered sacred by Algonquin First Nations.

A week before cutting began, Bernard lit a sacred fire at the eastern entrance to the threatened area, creating a gathering point for local community members, Algonquin people and environmental activists.  Over 150 people attended the day of Prayer for the Land at the fire site on 30 January 2011.

On the morning of 21 March an Israeli settler attacked and stabbed a Palestinian father of two from the village of Tuba in the South Hebron Hills.

Mahmoud Ibrahim Ali Awad, 32, was traveling by donkey from his home in Tuba to a medical appointment in the city of Yatta when a masked settler ran out of the Havat Ma’on settlement outpost and attacked him with a knife.  A resident of the neighboring village of at-Tuwani witnessed the assault, quickly alerted villagers and internationals, then interrupted the attack.  Awad was hospitalized with stab wounds to his chest and right arm.

Witnesses recognized the assailant as one of the settlers who had rioted near at-Tuwani two days earlier when villagers, Israeli peace activists and internationals were planting twenty-five olive trees to replace ones that had been hacked and destroyed a few weeks before.  The settlers, several of whom were masked, shoved and kicked the villagers, their sheep, and their supporters.

Israeli soldiers declared the area a closed military zone and discharged two percussion grenades in an attempt to force villagers to leave the area.  Police arrested two Palestinian men, but did not arrest or detain any of the settlers.

An estimated one thousand Palestinians, joined by Israeli and international activists, took to the streets on Friday, 25 February, to demand the opening of Shuhada Street, a former thoroughfare in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Israeli occupying forces fired foam-tipped bullets, tear gas, and sound grenades, injuring nine protestors.  Soldiers intercepted the demonstrators to prevent them from reaching Shuhada Street.

The protestors marched towards the line of soldiers, holding signs and chanting, “We don’t want the settlers or the occupation,” and, “The people want Shuhada Street.”

The military’s use of incapacitating tear gas and disorienting sound grenades effectively segmented the crowd, forcing smaller groups to break away and scatter into adjacent streets and alleys.  

The protest marked the 17th anniversary of Baruch Goldstein’s 1994 massacre of 29 Palestinians praying in Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque. 

Yes, friends, we need to do a little “preaching to the choir.”  Many of you are already convinced that CPT is doing good work.  As we celebrate 25 years of disciplined, nonviolent peacemaking, we face the challenge of ensuring the financial foundation to go forward for the next 25 years.

CPT continues to have a large chorus of strong and faithful contributors.  With gratitude, we look to you for the sustained melody of funds needed to support accompaniment of local peacemakers in Colombia, Iraq, Palestine, First Nations and elsewhere as they wage nonviolent direct action to confront systems of violence and oppression.  

Wild Goose Festival
CPT’s Aboriginal Justice Team will participate in the first annual Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina, 23-26 June, 2011.  Inspired by the long-established Greenbelt festival in the UK, Wild Goose “seeks to nurture a new community movement at the intersection of justice, spirituality and art,” says Festival director Gareth Higgins.  CPT hopes that our storytelling in this first year of the festival can help establish active peacemaking as a central concept of Christian practice for a new generation.  See www.wildgoosefestival.org for details.   

Christian Peacemaker Congress XI
13-16 October 2011
RE-IMAGINING PARTNERSHIPS FOR PEACEMAKING
Evanston, Illinois, USA
Marking the 25th Anniversary of CPT’s founding

Walk the Talk
CPT seeks applicants for full and part-time Peacemaker Corps positions, especially for the Palestine project, to start as early as September 2011.  Half to Full-time members are supported with a stipend and health coverage.  If you have, or will have participated in a CPT delegation prior to June 2011 and are available for training 15 July-15 August in Chicago, Illinois USA, please submit your Peacemaker Corps application by 1 May to personnel@cpt.org, or the CPT’s Chicago office.  Delegation information and all  application forms are available at www.cpt.org.

“Create Space for Peace”
CPT’s founding director, Gene Stoltzfus, had a vision for nonviolent engagement to ease tensions in hotspots around the world which has inspired thousands.  Released one year after his death, “Create Space for Peace” is a stirring collection of his writings, letters and sermons edited by his wife, Dorothy Friesen, and Filipina colleague, Marilen Abesamis.  Available online at www.cpt.org or contact Sophia (sophiac@cpt.org; 773-376-0550).  Suggested donation $20.

I found your envelope on the bus and I figured with a name like this, you deserved a donation.  Keep up the great work!  ($10 cash enclosed).
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Reading the October-December 2010 Signs of the Times is restoring my hope, particularly the stories about Sisters of the Spirit, and “A Voice is Heard in Segovia.”  I most enjoyed “Encounter on the Jesus Trail.”  These stories of people subverting the institutions that appear to support them, of surprising hope and even joy…came just at the right time.
Randy Gabrielse, Michigan, USA

By encouraging boycotts you are depriving Israelis of their livelihoods.  You are also encouraging an anti-Israel press which cannot help towards peacemaking.  Jesus said to bless one’s enemies.  Boycotts are never about peace and reconciliation.
Jenny Tarrant, Canada

Peacemaker Delegations

• Aboriginal Justice: 12-22 August; 24 September-5 October
• Colombia:   International: 19 May-2 June; 14-27 July; October dates tba (Latin American church leaders);  National (for Colombians): 16-23 April
• Iraq (Kurdish North): 13-26 October • Palestine/Israel: 24 May-6 June;  19 July-1 August; 6-19 September (German    language); 15-28 November

Listing of CPTers and where they served....

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