By Michele Naar-Obed

“We are your farmers, beekeepers, orchard growers, and agriculturalists.  We are the life blood of this region,” the villagers exclaim.  “We have been forced to flee into caves for protection when rockets, bombs and shells are hurled at us.  We live in tents or crowd into relatives’ houses in town because our government cannot protect us in the villages and they have yet to compensate our losses.  We are losing hope for our lives.  However, we will get our lives of dignity back because we know there are people in the international community that believe in us.”

For years, the village people along the border of northern Iraq have been caught in a deadly web woven by governments and politicians, militias and militaries –  all with their own agendas for fighting each other.  Bombings by Turkey and Iran have killed civilians, displaced more than a million villagers, destroyed their farms, and mutilated their livestock.

Despite serious silencing, neglect, and denial of the situation by many government and UN authorities, some officials and members of the international community do recognize the importance of these people’s lives for the good of Kurdish society.

In early March, CPT-Iraq released a 56-page report, “Where There is a Promise, There is Tragedy” that details the destruction of northern Iraqi village life by Turkish and Iranian attacks over the past two years.

The title quotes a Kurdish elder decrying his experience that every time governments promised something to the Kurds, a tragedy followed.  

Team members wrote the report because regional and world powers, rebel groups, and the Kurdish Regional Government have dismissed the villagers, their lives, their futures, their lands, and their children, as irrelevant to the “larger” agendas of the parties involved.

Although Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Turkey, the Turkish constitution fails to recognize them as such.  Turkish authorities persecute Kurds simply for speaking their mother tongue outside of their homes.  This year has seen an increase in state-sanctioned human rights abuses.

CPTers in Iraq, who regularly visit the Makhmoor Refugee Camp, are particularly concerned about a case involving 22 men, women and children from that camp.

CPT-Colombia witnesses the impact of sexual violence and loss of culture in most of the communities we accompany.  Recently, the U.S. Office on Colombia, a coalition  of which CPT is a part, issued an urgent action asking constituents to support Resolution 1224, now circulating in the U.S. House of Representatives, which would address these concerns.  

On 10 February 2010, paramilitaries assassinated two miners from FEDEAGROMISBOL (The Southern Bolivar Agricultural- Mining Federation) – a coalition of peasant farming and mining communities in Southern Bolivar province.  CPT-Colombia has accompanied FEDEAGROMISBOL since the murder of one of its leaders, Alejandro Uribe, in 2006.  These communities continue to struggle nonviolently for their dignity and their rights to their land. 

A collection of 20 civil society groups and non-governmental organizations issued the following report and denouncement of the murders (excerpts):

by Chris Knestrick

In 2008, the world witnessed the mobilization of tens of thousands of indigenous people demanding a new Colombia based on human rights and dignity.  The Minga, or “a gathering of people,” led by the indigenous communities of Colombia, mobilized 30,000 participants to march for six weeks from the city of Cali to Bogota, the Colombian capital.  They marched, in spite of police and military oppression, to present their five point agenda to the Colombian government and the world.

Since its initial mobilization, the Minga has gathered support from all sectors of society involved in the same struggle for land, dignity, and justice, including a coalition of the peasant farming and mining communities in Southern Bolivar which CPT accompanies (FEDEAGROMISBOL).  In October 2009, thousands of people marched in Cali, Bogota, and Cartagena.

Ten people participated in CPT’s first-ever training in Colombia.  Seven completed the training in December with 3-year commitments to serve as Reservists (r).  Front Row, Left to Right:  Cristina LaRotta, Jenny Rodríguez Díaz (r)
Back Row, Left to Right: Alix Lozano (r), Lucila Pabón Díaz (r), Juvenal Pacheco (r), Jamie Hazelwood (r), Karen Marles,  Lemuel LaRotta (r), Juan Sebastián Pacheco Lozano (r), Andrés Pacheco Lozano.

by Sylvia Morrison
In February, nineteen people of color, including fourteen CPTers, two Steering Committee members, one outside facilitator and two translators gathered for five days in Funza, Colombia to deepen the transformational work of undoing racism in CPT.

The gathering (conducted in Spanish with English translation) gave racialized CPTers an opportunity to meet in person, reflect on racism in CPT, learn more about internalized racism, and have fun together.

On a spring-like day in March, CPT’s founding director Gene Stoltzfus completed his journey on earth at the age of 70.  His heart stopped while he was riding his bicycle near his home in Fort Frances, Ontario.  He is survived by his wife Dorothy Friesen and many, many peacemakers who stand on the broad shoulders of his lifetime of creative action.

Gene nurtured and shaped Christian Peacemaker Teams from its beginning almost 25 years ago. As director for the first 16 years of CPT’s organizational life, Gene’s vision, ideas, and initiatives laid a strong foundation for our present work.

CPT and Gene’s family welcome financial contributions to CPT in Gene’s honor and invite you to share your own heart commitments for peace and justice by posting a comment on Gene’s blog site, www.peaceprobe.wordpress.com, under the heading: Gene Stoltzfus - Presente!  Living Memorial.  

Have you thought about including CPT in your will?  If you would like to consider this estateplanning option for supporting the ministry of peacemaking around the world, please contact CPT’s Outreach Coordinator,Tim Nafziger at: 773-376-0550 or e-mail: timn@cpt.org.  Thank you.

Ali Gohar from Pakistan where Gene visited last fall wrote: “Gene was my teacher, guide and mentor in my nonviolent life.  What Gene left for us in the way of nonviolence, we will follow... inshallah (God willing).”

Myrla Baldonado, International Coordinator of the Alliance for Bases Clean-up, hosted a 2007 CPT exploratory delegation’s tour of the former U.S. military bases in the Philippines.  She said, “Although Gene’s visit to Clark and Subic was brief, he left a great impact on our lives and those of the victims of toxic waste.  He really listened.”

by former CPT Steering Committee member Nora Carmi of Sabeel (Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem)

I cannot believe in the right of powerful domination, the language of arms or the strength of the mighty

I do believe in human rights and the power of nonviolence

I cannot believe that I should not be concerned or interested in what happens far from my country 

CPT-Palestine has formally endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, as called for by Palestinian NGOs (see www.bdsmovement.net). 

The movement urges “interna-tional civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era” and to pressure governments “to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel.”  

In January, Israeli security officials denied entry to CPT delegation leaders Bob Gross and Sarah Farahat after questioning them for more than 12 hours.  Both were banned from entering Palestine or Israel for ten years.

by Joy Ellison
Every school day, children from Tuba and Maghayir al Abeed walk between Ma’on settlement and Havat Ma’on settlement outpost to at-Tuwani and are regularly attacked by adult Israeli settlers.  Because these attacks have come to the attention of Israeli and international media, the Israeli military is supposed to escort the children and ensure their safety.  Too often, the army refuses to respond and the children are left to face the setters on their own.

One March morning, my teammates and I had observed only five children arrive at school in at-Tuwani.  A larger group of children had gathered at the appointed location and waited for the Israeli military escort until 8:10am.  Since school had already begun, most of the children returned home.

by Ryan Shiffer
In the neighborhood of al-Bweireh, on the outskirts of al-Khalil (Hebron), two settlers from the Givat Ha Harsina settlement attacked seven-year-old Amar Za’atari while he walked home from school with his brother and cousin.  The young settler men threw stones at the three boys and chased them with a dog.  In his panic to get away Amar tripped and fell on his face.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on 21 February that the Tomb of the Patriarchs/Matriarchs in Hebron (next to the Ibrahimi Mosque) and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem would be included in a national heritage restoration plan, which means these sites may become closed to Muslim worshippers.

The Ibrahimi Mosque, where Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein killed 29 praying Palestinians in 1994, is one of the most important Muslim holy sites, and the most accessible to West Bank Palestinians.

On the morning of 7 January 2010, Israeli soldiers chased and beat Palestinian shepherds from the Musa Raba’i family as the family grazed their sheep in Humra valley near the village of at-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills.  When more at-Tuwani residents arrived to try and calm things down, the soldiers threw stun grenades and tear gas canisters.

The soldiers also shoved the internationals accompanying the shepherds and intentionally broke a CPT video camera.  Two women, one elder and one pregnant, had to be hospitalized from the effects of tear gas inhalation.  Three of the shepherds received medical treatment for their injuries, and a young boy’s tooth was broken.

by Ron Forthofer and Rich Williams - CPT-Colorado Regional Group

Participants in last September’s Christian Peacemaker Congress in Denver, Colorado wrote post cards supporting Blackfeet tribal member Elouise Cobell’s class action lawsuit which sought $47 billion from the U.S. government for oil, gas, grazing, timber and other wealth taken from American Indian lands.  In December, after 13 years, the government finally settled the suit for $3.4 billion.  

On New Year’s morning, 14 Chicago-area peacemakers returned “tainted gifts” to a downtown Body Shop retail outlet.   

The Body Shop proudly proclaims company values of “Community Trade, Human Rights, and Protection of the Planet,” yet its products contain palm oil supplied by Daabon Organics which forcibly displaced 123 families from their farmlands in Las Pavas, Colombia, one area where CPT works.

Peacemaker Delegations

 • Aboriginal Justice: to be announced
 • Colombia: 12-25 May; 14-27 July; 15-28 Sept.
• Iraq: (Kurdish North): 14-28 October
• Palestine/Israel: 18-31 May; 20 July - 2 August; 5-18 October; 16-29 November

Peacemaker Trainings
• Summer: 12 July - 12 August; Chicago, Illinois, USA (apply by 1 May)
• Winter: 27 December, 2010 – 27 January, 2011; Chicago, Illinois, USA (apply by 1 October)

CPT-wide Undoing Racism Seminar
23-25 August; Five Oaks Retreat Centre; Paris, Ontario, Canada

Peacemaker Corps Retreat
25-30 August; Five Oaks Retreat Centre; Paris, Ontario, Canada

Steering Committee Meetings
• Fall 2010: 14-16 October; Elkhart County, Indiana, USA
• Spring 2011: 24-26 March; Chicago, Illinois, USA

THE U.S. SOCIAL FORUM - 22-26 June, 2010 in Detroit, Michigan will provide space to build relationships, learn from each other’s experiences, share analysis of the problems our communities face, help develop leadership, vision, and strategy needed to realize another world. Register at www.ussf2010.org.

Thanks for the “Right Relationships” cover article in the Sept-Nov issue of Signs of the Times!  Thanks also for your ongoing work.
Arbutus Sider, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

We especially enjoyed the article “Restoring Balance Through Right Relationships” in your last issue, maybe because this is a bit closer to home.  We identified much we can work on.
Skip & Anne Martin - Lowville, New York

Jesus would condemn your aiding those who seek to harm his fellow Jews and the Jewish homeland Israel.
Ibrahim - Internet

I’ve been keeping up with your activities in the newsletter and wish I could give more.  This donation is redirected war taxes.
Paula Rogge - Madison, Wisconsin