CPT hostages call for forgiveness

I've just been to the press conference in London (at St.Ethelburgas, a church which was destroyed by an IRA bomb and is now a peace centre) where the former CPT hostages, Jim Loney, Norman Kember and Harmeet Singh Sooden called for restorative justice not the death penalty for their former captors:

"We unconditionally forgive our captors for abducting and holding us. We have no desire to punish them. Punishment can never restore what was taken from us. What our captors did was wrong. They caused us, our families and our friends great suffering. Yet we bear no malice towards them and have no wish for retribution. Should those who have been charged with holding us hostage be brought to trial and convicted, we ask that they be granted all possible leniency. We categorically lay aside any rights we may have over them... Kidnapping is a capital offence in Iraq and we understand that some of our captors could be sentenced to death. The death penalty is an irrevocable judgment. It erases all possibility that those who have harmed others, even seriously, can yet turn to good. We categorically oppose the death penalty." (Statement in full)

It is a very clear message and my friend Tom Fox, who was kidnapped with them but killed a few weeks before they were rescued, would have agreed wholeheartedly with it. In response to a question, Norman said "Tom was the most compassionate of the four of us. Whenever we heard a bomb go off somewhere in the city, Tom would immediately pray for both the victims and the perpetrators."

Separately... the BBC today reports on the pioneering grassroots video-blogging from Iraq that my friends Omar and Brian have been doing in Baghdad. Alive in Baghdad was being run from my flat in Amman earlier this year.

Chomsky on CPT

Speaking at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon this week, Noam Chomsky painted a gloomy picture of international affairs under the US empire. At the end, when he was asked by a member of his audience "Is there any hope?", he mentioned "International solidarity movements, such as those in Central America and Palestine, and Christian Peacemaker Teams, who actually go to places being bombed by the U.S. and live with the people." On this note, here is an article in the Scotsman about Jan Benvie who did CPT training with my in Jan 2005 and is now joining them full time. Also here is an interview (Realaudio format)on CBC with former hostage Jim Loney.

Memorial service for Tom Fox

Today there is a memorial service for Tom Fox in Washington. As I'm here in Baghdad I sadly can't attend, but I remember his simplicity, commitment to Iraq and non-violence, practicality and gentle nature. He was far from a perfect man, but Jesus shone through him very clearly. Here are a few words written for his memorial by Norman Kember, who spent the first 3 months with him in captivity:

"His loyalty to the CPT ethic of nonviolence was outstanding. He led worship in Quaker style and in Bible Study followed the 4 exercises for each: first impressions, relevance to our life experience, difficulties in understanding and how the message would change our life. His contributions to these discussions were often profound and based on his extensive reading. It was like having Rene Gerard present with us. I remember Tom for his outstanding humanity. We often heard explosions in the city and he would pray for the victims and their families. He reminded us that our deprivations in captivity were paralleled by those in the lives of many in Iraq and the wider world. In captivity he volunteered to take on the greater discomforts. In the many hours of talks together he gave us insights into his love of music, of the natural world and his family. I salute Tom Fox."

Easter Freedom

Holy Saturday is an appropriate time to be in Baghdad. In the Gospels it is a time of gloom. Jesus has been seized by a religious militia, brutally tortured and then executed. His lifeless and mutilated body is lying in a stone tomb. His family and disciples have run out of hope and were probably afraid also for their own lives.

That situation has a immediate resonance here in Iraq. Today dozens of families will be searching through the gruesome photographs in Baghdad morgue, in search of answers they do not want to find, or discretely burying a loved one with a single executioners bullet hole in his head. The situation here is very dark indeed, as one Iraqi told me today about a vision of "a huge devil hovering over the whole country." But... we know that Holy Saturday is not the end of the story... tomorrow comes resurrection. Iraq may have to wait a little longer than that for a new government, let along a new life for its people, but as I worshiped today with the Iraqi congregation of St.Georges Baghdad, shared communion and heard their stories of suffering, I was strengthened by their faith that though the situation remains grim Jesus has indeed conquered the power of death.

As my CPT friend Jim Loney, who was freed from his kidnappers in Baghdad last month, eloquently writes today in the Toronto Star: "There are no easy answers. We must all find our way through a broken world, struggling with the paradox of call and failure. My captivity and rescue have helped me to catch a glimpse of how powerful the force of resurrection is. Christ, that tomb-busting suffering servant Son of God, seeks us wherever we are, reaches for us in whatever darkness we inhabit. May we reach for each other with that same persistence. The tomb is not the final word."

Response to critics of CPT

They media coverage over the past few days has been a depressing postscript to the freedom from captivity of Jim, Harmeet and Norman. Almost as soon as their bonds were cut loose the attacks began, showing little sensitivity to their families and the 3 men who had also just been informed about Tom's death. One radio programme in the US told its listeners to phone the CPT offices in Chicago and Toronto and jam their phone lines. I have personally recieved some hate mail and those more centrally involved in CPT have recieved torrents of it.

A principle allegation is that the hostages and CPT as an organisation did not express gratitute to the military personel involved in their release. This allegation has been most widely reported through quoting General Sir Michael Jackson who spoke to Channel 4 News on Friday evening saying that “saddened that there doesn’t seem to have been a note of gratitude for the soldiers who risked their lives to save those lives”.

While it is true that CPT's first press release on Thursday morning did not contain specific thanks to soldiers, it is because this was released in the middle of the night in Canada, at 3.30am EST, when CPT had just recieved a phone call from Jim Loney's family saying that the three were free. At that stage CPT had no further details of what had happened and so issued a simple statement rejocing in their freedom and remembering Tom Fox. As soon as details emerged they issued an addenda to the statement that evening expressing specific thanks. This came a day before General Jackson's comments to Channel 4 News (which in fact he qualified on that interview by saying a thank-you may have been issued, but if so he was not aware of it - this qualification has usually been cut out from quotations). Furthermore in their first statements upon arriving home in England, Canada and New Zealand, all of the three men have expressed thanks to those involved in their release. Also, more important than press statements, the three men thanked the people who helped them face to face when they were in Baghdad.

As for other media attacks such as accusations of naivite etc., see this excellent set of responses to criticisms prepared by the religious think-tank Ekklesia.

In any case, it is better being attacked than ignored, it a sign that the powers-that-be are feeling uncomfortable. Jesus told his followers to expect things like this: "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matthew 5:11-12).

Rescue of CPT hostages!

This is wonderful news this morning that Norman, Jim and Harmeet my CPT colleagues were rescued this morning. The reports I have heard so far say that no one was harmed in the release, and if this is true then that is a relief as none of the three would want anyone to be killed to secure their freedom. I am grateful for the many people who worked for their release, both those involved in this operation and moveover the dozens of Iraqi and Muslim friends who have supported us over the last 4 months, and particularly those who put themselves in danger in the process.

Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, has said that this operation justifies that continued Coalition military presence in Iraq. I know that all the former hostages will reject this. They came to Iraq to stand with Iraqis against the abuses perpatrated by the Coalition, and it is because of the actions of the Coalition that Iraq is in such a state of chaos where kidnapping is commonplace and where any foreigners are particular prized targets.

I'm going to keep updating this page today as facts emerge

LOCATION: The Interior Ministry says they were found northwest of Baghdad between the towns of Mishahda, 20 miles away from Baghdad, and the western suburb of Abu Ghraib, 12 miles away. Maj.Gen Lynch is saying it was a "house in West Baghdad".
TIME: Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the U.S. military spokesman said they were resuced at 8am this morning.
CONDITION: Reports are that Norman is in a "reasonable condition" but Jim & Harmeet required hospital treatment (I think they were only briefly in Ibn Sina hospital in Baghdad, CPT colleagues are going there now to see them).
CIRCUMSTANCES: Maj.Gen Lynch said that the operation was based on information from a man captured by U.S. forces only three hours earlier. (this doesn't seem to match Jack Straw's statement that the operation was weeks in the planning). No kidnappers were present when the troops broke into a house in western Baghdad. The captives' hands were tied,there was no one else present in the house when troops arrived, and therefore no shot was fired.
COMMENTTS: Some people's reactions on BBC news. I was interviewed on BBC World but haven't got a link to that.

I echo CPT's statement
Our hearts filled with joy today as we heard that Harmeet Singh Sooden, Jim Loney and Norman Kember have been safely released in Baghdad. Christian Peacemaker Teams rejoices with their families and friends at the expectation of their return to their loved ones and community. Together we have endured uncertainty, hope, fear, grief and now joy during the four months since they were abducted in Baghdad.
We rejoice in the return of Harmeet Sooden. He has been willing to put his life on the line to promote justice in Iraq and Palestine as a young man newly committed to active peacemaking.
We rejoice in the return of Jim Loney. He has cared for the marginalized and oppressed since childhood, and his gentle, passionate spirit has been an inspiration to people near and far.
We rejoice in the return of Norman Kember. He is a faithful man, an elder and mentor to many in his 50 years of peacemaking, a man prepared to pay the cost.
We remember with tears Tom Fox, whose body was found in Baghdad on March 9, 2006, after three months of captivity with his fellow peacemakers. We had longed for the day when all four men would be released together. Our gladness today is made bittersweet by the fact that Tom is not alive to join in the celebration. However, we are confident that his spirit is very much present in each reunion.
Harmeet, Jim and Norman and Tom were in Iraq to learn of the struggles facing the people in that country. They went, motivated by a passion for justice and peace to live out a nonviolent alternative in a nation wracked by armed conflict. They knew that their only protection was in the power of the love of God and of their Iraqi and international co-workers. We believe that the illegal occupation of Iraq by Multinational Forces is the root cause of the insecurity which led to this kidnapping and so much pain and suffering in Iraq. The occupation must end.
Today, in the face of this joyful news, our faith compels us to love our enemies even when they have committed acts which caused great hardship to our friends and sorrow to their families. In the spirit of the prophetic nonviolence that motivated Jim, Norman, Harmeet and Tom to go to Iraq, we refuse to yield to a spirit of vengeance. We give thanks for the compassionate God who granted our friends courage and who sustained their spirits over the past months. We pray for strength and courage for ourselves so that, together, we can continue the nonviolent struggle for justice and peace.
Throughout these difficult months, we have been heartened by messages of concern for our four colleagues from all over the world. We have been especially moved by the gracious outpouring of support from Muslim brothers and sisters in the Middle East, Europe, and North America. That support continues to come to us day after day. We pray that Christians throughout the world will, in the same spirit, call for justice and for respect for the human rights of the thousands of Iraqis who are being detained illegally by the U.S. and British forces occupying Iraq.
During these past months, we have tasted of the pain that has been the daily bread of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Why have our loved ones been taken? Where are they being held? Under what conditions? How are they? Will they be released? When?
With Tom’s death, we felt the grief of losing a beloved friend. Today, we rejoice in the release of our friends Harmeet, Jim and Norman. We continue to pray for a swift and joyful homecoming for the many Iraqis and internationals who long to be reunited with their families. We renew our commitment to work for an end to the war and the occupation of Iraq as a way to continue the witness of Tom Fox. We trust in God’s compassionate love to show us the way.
Living through the many emotions of this day, we remain committed to the words of Jim Loney, who wrote: "With God’s abiding kindness, we will love even our enemies. With the love of Christ, we will resist all evil. With God’s unending faithfulness, we will work to build the beloved community."

Goodbye my friend

I will always remember Tom Fox as a dear friend and the truest model of Christ-like nonviolence that I am likely to meet, and whom I aspire to emulate. Amidst the chaos, confusion and stress of Iraq, Tom managed to maintain a steady calm, a consistent faith and a gentle sense of humour. When my heart was rushing at 100 beats a minute in fear, worry or anger about something going on around us in Iraq, talking to Tom was like bathing in a cool pond and gradually exhaling all the anxiety.

This photo is from January 2005, when I first met Tom during my CPT training in Chicago. We were in Iraq together for much of the year. He was with me on April 20 when I learnt that there was a specific and imminent death threat against me, and prayed and talked with me as I discerned what to do. His support was critical during that most frightening time. (14 March - Reflecting on Tom's death, it seems unfair that I should have escaped through a tip-off, whereas Tom - who was far more deserving, has children and could have contributed so much to Iraq - did not).

His death is a loss to us all but I know that he would not consider it a waste. He was well aware of the dangers because his first stay in Iraq was in the frightening days of Autumn 2004 after an intense spate of kidnappings including many friends of CPT. Tom would hope that his death would focus attention not on himself but on the suffering of 25 million Iraqis trapped in the chaos which has been created by the Occupation. I hope that he will be an inspiration to thousands to chose the path of nonviolence, costly though it can be.

The reports are saying that there is evidence that Tom was beaten and tortured. I suspect that amidst his pain he would have cried out, like Jesus, for forgiveness for his oppressors. The people who killed Tom must have dehumanized him, seeing him as "an American" or "a hostage" but nonetheless Tom valued them as precious children of God. He shared his perspective in a poignant reflection "Why are we here?", written on 25 November, the day before his kidnapping:

"As I survey the landscape here in Iraq, dehumanization seems to be the operative means of relating to each other. U.S. forces in their quest to hunt down and kill "terrorists" are, as a result of this dehumanizing word, not only killing "terrorists," but also killing innocent Iraqis: men, women and children in the various towns and villages. It seems as if the first step down the road to violence is taken when I dehumanize a person... As soon as I rob a fellow human being of his or her humanity by sticking a dehumanizing label on them, I begin the process that can have, as an end result, torture, injury and death. "Why are we here?" We are here to root out all aspects of dehumanization that exist within us. We are here to stand with those being dehumanized by oppressors and stand firm against that dehumanization. We are here to stop people, including ourselves, from dehumanizing any of God's children, no matter how much they dehumanize their own souls."

For me the defining picture of Tom was taken in May 2005 when he dressed in an orange jumpsuit and joined with Iraqi Shia colleagues from Muslim Peacemaker Teams to sweep streets in the devestated Sunni city of Fallujah. Here was Tom engaging in a humble act of physical service in support of Iraqi colleagues seeking reconciliation between communities and a restoration of the destruction wrought by the Occupation.

CPT statement on Tom's death

Sheila Provencher (CPT team mate)

Excerpts from Tom's blog

Electronic Iraq's memorial

Charles Sullivan constrasting Tom's Christianity with Bush.

New video of CPTers

A new video was released yestarday on al-Jazeera. It showed 3 of my colleagues from CPT who were kidnapped and, at a time when hope could have been dwindling, it is reassuring to see them alive. My closest freind amongst the group, Tom Fox, did not feature in this video. I echo the statement CPT has released:

"We do not know what to make of Tom Fox's absence from this video. However we do know what motivated Tom and his colleagues to go to Iraq. Tom wrote on the day before he was taken, "We are here to take part in the creation of the Peaceable Realm of God... How we take part in the creation of this realm is to love God with all our heart, our mind and our strength, and to love our neighbors and enemies as we love God and ourselves." Many Iraqi friends and human rights workers welcome CPT as a nonviolent, independent presence. Iraqis have asked us to tell their stories in our home communities, to share with them our own experiences of peacemaking, to assist them in building nonviolent institutions in Iraq, and to accompany them as they seek justice for detainees and others suffering from the oppression of Iraq. We seek to promote what is human in all of us and so to offer a glimpse of hope in a dark time. This hope springs from our own faith tradition. We have witnessed a similar hope within the faith traditions of the people of Iraq. We believe that the root cause of the abduction of our colleagues is the U.S. and British-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. Many in Iraq have experienced this long war as terrorism. The occupation must end."

Tim Nafzinger, who will be Best Man at my wedding in June, speaks about the new video and particularly about Norman Kember on Democracy Now.

On the theme of detainees here's an excellent interview by my friend Jane with Moazzam Begg, one of the Brits eventually released from Guantánamo Bay.

Kidnapped by Iraqis... then by Americans

My friend Phil Sands, a British journalist, was kidnapped on Boxing Day but freed by US soldiers who stumbled across him accidently during a house raid on New Years Eve (as an independent journalist, no one had realised he was missing - see his accounts in the Scotsman and San Francisco Chronicle).

It is good news that Phil is free, however his translator Salam, who is one of my closest Iraqi friends and was my translator back in 2003, was immediately detained by the Americans and is still been held by them. They did not even allow him to call his family who only learnt what had happened when we managed to contact them via a mutual friend. Translators and drivers are routinely suspected of being involved in kidnappings - it took weeks to release our CPT translators and drivers who were detained after the kidnapping in November - which is a great disservice to these Iraqis who put themselves at great risk to protect us and enable us to work. Phil is convinced that Salam had nothing whatsoever to do with his kidnapping, and I support him 100%.

Back in the Middle East

Eid Mubarrak. As the whole Muslim world commemorates Ibraham's willingness to obey God through sacrifice I pray that people will be convicted by the story of Eid al-Adha that while God asks for obedience he never wills the death of innocents.

Apologies for my silence over the last month. I've been waiting for something positive to say about my abducted friends from CPT, but unfortunately there is nothing to report yet. Things seem to have gone stagnant and we only have rumours and theorising to go on. What we know for sure is that CPT's work is appreciated by a great number of Iraqis, Palestinians and Muslims around the world with whom we'd had no contact prior to the incident, and I am grateful and humbled by the depth of this support. In Palestine some friends of the team actually lost their jobs because they dropped everything to work full time on the case. I met two particularly brave people, Anas from Britain and Ehab from Canada, who travelled to Iraq to lobby for their release.

For my part I'm embarrassed to admit that since 20 December I've been on holiday. There did not seem to be anything much I could add to what others were doing by being in the region and so I stuck to my plans to spend Christmas in America with my fiance trying to plan our wedding (unfortunately we eventually ruled out Baghdad as a venue! It's likely to happen in the summer in two parts, one in the US and one in the UK, possibly with some follow up celebrations in the Middle East) and then New Year in England seeing many family and friends for the first time in many months.

Of course I've been glued to email and the phone through this period and continually aware that somewhere in Iraq those four wonderful people are now entering the 7th week of their ordeal. And many others besides including some kidnapped Iraqis I'm trying to help and one of my first and closest Iraqi friend who is being detaineed by US soldiers. I just heard about Jill Carroll's abduction. She was one of Marla Ruzicka's dear friends and I was moved by her words at Marla's memorial service in Baghdad last April. Jill has written consistently insightful articles in the CSM over the last few years. Tragically her translator Alan (a friend of Riverbend) was killed in the abduction. It is frustrating that so much time and energy is being drained from those reporting the truth in Iraq through the kidnapping of people like the CPTers and Jill.

Anyhow I'm back in the region now and I value all of your prayers for my friends and all those suffering in Iraq. May 2006 be the year when the tide turns against occupation and sectarian violence and the country begins to move towards peace, justice and prosperity. Inshallah.

Deadline extended

As the clocked past midnight, Baghdad time, Al-Jazeera just aired new footage and a statement from the Swords of Righteousness Brigade extending the deadline for the execution of my friends and colleagues by 2 days. I have had a strange peace about the situation though I knew, rationally, that the original deadline might have been real. I pray that the new deadline is also flexible because 48 hours is not a long time.

CPT's guiding principle in conflict situations, a corollary of Jesus' Golden Rule, is never to dehumanise people. So perhaps it is not such a surprise that people demonised by society, such as Abu Qatada (referred to sometimes as "Bin Laden's Ambassador to Europe") should have spoken out in support of CPT. One might think it strange that an avowedly pacifist Christian organisation receives such heartfelt support from jihadist Muslims such as Hamas and the Al-Asqa Martyr's Brigade. Perhaps it is because they can see that CPTers like Tom Fox are among the few in the West who, while disagreeing with their actions, still treat them as precious human beings. My Iraqi friends tell me that people in Baghdad are beginning to refer to the CPT-four as the "mujahadeen" - of course that is a term that they would all reject because of its conitations of violence - but it is nonetheless a deep affirmation that Iraqis recognise them as being radically aligned with their struggle for freedom and justice.

Two articles out of the thousands published over the last week jump out. One is one of Jim Loney's final releases, describing one of our dear mutual Iraqi friends, a friend who has suffered unimaginably as a war-resistor and yet retains a soft heart. The other focuses on Tom Fox, who's steady radical faith has been a firm support to me much of this year in Baghdad and I'm sure will be sustaining the whole group through this trial. Inshallah when I will see Tom free in a few days I'm sure he we give me his shy half smile and ask in those gentle measured tones what all the fuss has been about during his little hiatus, given than dozens of Iraqis go through a similar experience each day.

CPT has issued a new press release:
Love Your Enemies. Free the Captives. End the War

We remain concerned about the well-being of our team-mates Harmeet, James, Norman, and Tom, and we ask for their release. We also remain concerned about the well-being of all Iraqis who are suffering under occupation.

Those who are with our team-mates have demanded the release from captivity of the Iraqi detainees held in United States’ and Iraqi prisons.

Christian Peacemaker Teams believes that no single person, no single nation can meet the demands of Justice.

No single person, no single nation can meet the demands of Peace.

But we believe that it is everyone’s responsibility to do their part to bring each combatant and each captive home to their families and to end the war and occupation.
December 10th is International Human Rights Day.

Christian Peacemaker Teams calls for all people of conscience around the world to initiate non-violent public actions for peace and for prayer on December 10
in support of international human rights and in support of ending war and occupation.

Massive support for the CPT Four

It has been an incredibly distressing week in many ways, but one thing which has kept many of us going has been the huge outpouring of support for our friends in Iraq. Not only have dozens of volunteers associated with CPT worked around the clock, but hundreds of others have organised vigils, written articles, attended prayer meetings and expressed their respect and concern for Tom, Jim, Harmeet and Norman. Independent initiatives have been launched including a visit to Iraq by a representative of the Muslim Assoication of Britain and the broader anti-war movement. Muslims held in detention in Canada for four years under anti-terrorism legislation have spoken out recipricoly for James Loney who has been involved in the campaign for their release. An new friend in Beirut is staying up late into the night translating press releases and statements.

There has been a groundswell of support from Palestine, where many appreciate the work of CPT over the last decade. There have been rallies in Tuwani, Khalil and Ramallah and statements from Sheikh Mehdi al-Karki and many of the political parties. Tomorrow my fiance (working with CPT in Palestine) will share a platform with the Mufti of Jerusalem who is holding a press conference calling for our friends release. Most importantly, the team in Iraq have recieved huge support from many Iraqi friends and neighbours, some who have even gone on TV, always a dangerous thing to do, to make personal appeals. Moreover there has been strong support from significant individuals and groups including Sheikh Abdullatif Humayem, the Association of Muslim Scholars and the Iraqi Islamic Party.

For more info see CPT and Indymedia Beirut

Second video

A second video was released by Jazeera last night showing my friends from CPT looking in worse condition and with a threat to kill them on Thursday unless all detainees are released. This is dreadfully ironic given that the primary work of CPT in Iraq has been helping detainees, both of the Occupation and of the Iraqi government.

In April I joined the Iraqi Islamic Party in a rally of hundreds of family members of detainees and many in the crowd recognised us for working on their cases. The first problem for Iraqis is that when relatives are detaineed in a raid or whatever, it can take months to find out where they are being held. The next stage is arranging family visits. In March I went all the way down to camp Bucca in Umm Qasr in March accopanying an Iraqi who had been twice turned away when trying to visit his brothers there, he got in on that occassion. The hardest step is encouraging the authorities to conduct a fair and quick judicial process or release them. Some of my close friends have been detained for really no reason for a year and then never even question or told the alleged charges against them. A number of people whose cases we've lobbied on (letter writing to authorities etc.) have been released and the families have credited us with the release (and invited us to joyful reunion parties) though to be honest its often hard for us to tell how big a role our intervention played in the release. Many others have not been release, but we continue to try and stand by their families. Also to document and report on the overall detainee situation to try and change policy.

I'm still in the cloths I was wearing last Sunday, which I've been sleeping in (for max 3hrs a night) as well. I'm in Jordan now but hopefully on my way to Baghdad soon. See www.cpt.org for arabic statements, petition, CPT's detainee reports etc. also see Tom Fox's blog.

Kidnapped but standing firm

It's now almost 24 hours since the video of my CPT friends appeared on al-Jazeera. Until that point I'd been rushing to try and return to Baghdad ASAP but since then I've been glued to the phone & net, not leaving my desk (and sleeping under it). I've been tangled up in some of Iraq's horrors before (Ghareeb, Enzo, Simonas, Marla, Khalid and my own death threat) but that's not really much of a preparation. Dozens of people across at least 7 countries have been working through the night and supporting each other through fear, exhaustion and frustration. In the intense flurry of activity (I've made more calls in the last day than maybe the last 3 months combined) its very easy to forget prayer but it is more valuable than anything else we (and you please!) can do. And not lose sight of the bigger picture. Wonderful and valuable though my friends are, they are no more valuable than the dozens of Iraqis who are murdered and kidnapped every day and may warrant no more than a nameless footnote in a newswire, if that.

CPT has now issued a full press statement in arabic and english. Also a Palestinian statement of support from Islamic forces in Khalil has been issued by people familiar with our work in the West Bank (english translation). Please circulate these. Many Iraqis friends are trying to get the word out on Arab TV. Here are some articles about CPT's work in Iraq over the last year.

In a published reflection a year ago, Tom Fox wrote: If I am not to fight or flee in the face of armed aggression, be it the overt aggression of the army or the subversive aggression of the terrorist, then what am I to do? "Stand firm against evil" (Matthew 5:39) seems to be the guidance of Jesus and Gandhi in order to stay connected with God. Here in Iraq I struggle with that second form of aggression. I have visual references and written models of CPTers standing firm against the overt aggression of an army, be it regular or paramilitary. But how do you stand firm against a car-bomber or a kidnapper? Clearly the soldier disconnected from God needs to have me fight. Just as clearly the terrorist disconnected from God needs to have me flee. Both are willing to kill me using different means to achieve he same end--that end being to increase the parasitic power of Satan within God's good creation. It seems easier somehow to confront anger within my heart than it is to confront fear. But if Jesus and Gandhi are right then I am not to give in to either. I am to stand firm against the kidnapper as I am to stand firm against the soldier. Does that mean I walk into a raging battle to confront the soldiers? Does that mean I walk the streets of Baghdad with a sign saying "American for the Taking?" No to both counts. But if Jesus and Gandhi are right, then I am asked to risk my life, and if I lose it to be as forgiving as they were.

Peacemakers kidnapped

On Saturday four people with Christian Peacemaker Teams, one a close friend I worked with in Iraq earlier this year and another an aquaintance, were kidnapped in Baghdad. CPT has issued this statement:

"International violence-reduction organization Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) confirmed today that the four humanitarian workers kidnapped in Baghdad on November 26 are associated with their organization. One of the hostages is Norman Kember, a member of the current CPT delegation to Iraq. The British Foreign office confirmed Mr. Kember’s name on Sunday. The names of the other hostages are being withheld in the interest of their security. Only two are members of the long-term Team.

CPT has been present in Iraq since October, 2002. The Team’s work has focused on documenting and focusing public attention on detainee abuses, connecting citizens of Iraq to local and international human rights organizations, and accompanying Iraqi civilians as they interact with multinational military personnel and Iraq’s government officials. Iraqi friends and human rights workers have welcomed the Team as a non-violent, independent presence and asked that the Team tell the stories of Iraqis.

In a “Statement of Conviction,” the long-term Team members stated that they “are aware of the many risks both Iraqis and internationals currently face,” and affirmed that the risks did not outweigh their purpose in remaining. They express the hope that “in loving both friends and enemies and by intervening non-violently to aid those who are systematically oppressed, we can contribute in some small way to transforming this volatile situation.”

CPT does not advocate the use of violent force to save our lives should we be kidnapped, held hostage, or caught in the middle of a conflict situation.

Christian Peacemaker Teams places teams of trained peacemakers in crisis situations and militarized areas around the world. These teams host regular delegations of committed peace and human rights activists to conflict zones, who join teams in working with civilians to document abuses and develop non-violent alternatives. The CPT Iraq Team has hosted a total of 120 people on 16 delegations over the last 3 years.

In addition to the Iraq Team, Teams of CPT workers are currently serving in Barrancabermeja, Colombia; Hebron and At-Tuwani, Palestine; Kenora, Ontario, Canada; and on the Mexico-United States border."

The CPT-Iraq team does not want media speculation at this moment in case this is harmful. They may issue further statements on their website. Any media should contact them on +1 416-423-5525 (Canada) +1 773-277-0253 (US), offices being staffed 24hrs a day.

If anyone may be able to help with their release contact CPT on the above, or you can reach me at justinalexander@gmail.com or by phone currently on +0039 0831 23 2042 (until about 10pm Kuwait time, 3pm EST) or at my hotel + 965 5710301 ext. 237 (or ask the switchboard to see if I'm at the lobby internet cafe). You may be able to SMS (but not call) me on +962 796497506. My numbers are likely to change in the next few days as I am traveling, and I will post the latest here.

Use Googlenews for the latest on this issue sorted by relevance and date.

In any case, I welcome all of your prayers for their safety and for the many brave Iraqis suffering ongoing kidnapping, detention and violence, and struggling to make ends meet.

Settler attack on Tuwani averted

So I've just 3 days of travel getting from Tuwani to Baghdad. On route I've bumped into various friends (including finally meeting the elusive Azzam, the "capitalist dad" and only non-blogging member of the Jarrar family) and I've been on tender hooks worrying about Jenny facing attacks from Israeli settlers.

In Iraq the controversy continues over Saddam's trial and the referendum results. The violence also continues. This morning I got a call from a very close friend in great distress as there had been an explosion at his younger sister's school in Mansour. The scale of violence in Iraq today is so vast that this incident, which in any other country might have been headline news for days, didn't warrent a single dedicated news article focusing on it, only a few lines reporting that a mortar killed two a child and wounded four others. Thankfully his sister was ok. Rumours at the scene were that it was an American missile. Either way the school was probably not the target but an unfortunate miss.

Last night, as I was in Baghdad airport, Jenny had just texted me that 6 busloads of settlers drove through their village and that the settler's security guard had threatened that they were coming to hurt them and the villagers. The Israeli army and police said the situation was too dangerous for them to intervene, and so they were going to abandoning CPT and the Palestinians to the mercy of the settlers. I spent most of the night praying for them in the military chapel in Camp Striker, Baghdad airpot (a very unusal habitat!) and, hamdulillah, I learnt this morning that the attack was averted, or at least delayed. Jenny and team did a phenomenal job putting pressure on the Israelis (with dozens of internationals and Israeli activists phoning army officers) and so they finally turned up. However the IDF has refused to continue escorting children from the neighouring village of Tuba who have to pass close by the settlement in order to get to school in Tuwani. This violates a system established by order of the Knesset last year after CPTers were severely beaten by settlers while escorting the children, highlighting the issue in the international media. The upside of these new threats of violence is that once again both the Israeli and international media are taking an interest, and this may force the Israeli government to curb the settlers and ease the restrictions on the villagers.

Two final things (a lots's been happening today)...

Firstly many mutual friends have been asking after Joe Carr. He is recovering in Ramallah hospital after suffering a ruptured spleen. I was with him on Friday at the demonstration against the Apertheid Wall in Bil'in. Here is his report of trying to protect Palestinian childrenfrom rubber bullets and subsequently being grabbed and used as a human shield by an Israeli soldier and hence being hit in the ribs by a rock. I travelled to Ramallah hospital with him in a Red Cresent ambulance and as he lay there it was clear that for Joe, who saw his friends Rachel and Tom killed by the IDF in Gaza in 2003, to suffer this injury in the struggle for Palestinian rights was a very minor thing. We differ significantly in our politics and ethics, but Joe's courage and committment continuously inspire me.

Secondly it turns out that Kirsten Dunst will be playing Marla in the film about her life being produced by Marc Platt for MTV films. I wish that she was around to see it.

Refugees again - Palestinians flee Iraq

Before sunrise on Tuesday, 20 Palestinians (including 8 children, a 77 grandmother and two disabled men) piled into a delapitated bus in Baghdad and travelled the perilous Anbar road past Ramadi and Rutba (risking attack from Americans, terrorists, Iraqi security forces and criminal gangs) to the Syrian border town of Al-Waleed. They were accompanied by 3 friends from Christian Peacemaker Teams and an Iraqi peace activist from Najaf, part of the sister group Muslim Peacemaker Teams.

Everyone in Iraq is suffering these days, but the Palestinian community, most of whom have been born here (their families having fled Palestine in 1948), are among the lowest of the low. They do not have Iraqi citizenship and have to extend their residency permits (a complex process) every single month. Because Saddam exploited the Palestinian cause to try and gain prominence in the Arab world, Palestinians are often (incorrectly) viewed as having supported and benefited from his regime and as a result are persecuted. In fact Saddam did very little for the 23,000 Palestinians in Iraq. In addition, as a result of fears of foreign jihadists, any non-Iraqi Arabs are view with suspicion. There is no evidence that any of the Palestinian community in Iraq has been involved in terrorist activities, but none the less they are frequently harrassed and detained. Things have got so bad that Iraqi security forces have been turning up at the Palestinian ghetto in Baladiat (Baghdad) almost every evening. This is the reason that Palestinians are beginning to take the ultimate step of leaving their homes once again in search of a genuine place of refugee.

One of the Palestinians said: "By our action we want to make the UN aware of our situation and to be registered as refugees with UNRWA which provides assistance to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza and other Arab nations but not in Iraq." I've been doing my best to alert people in the UN to the situation, and they are taking it seriously, however the decision on permitting them to enter Syria rest with the government.

For updates see the CPT_Iraq Yahoo Group. Their plight has been covered in the Canadian Globe and Mail (although this article exaggerates the support Palestinians recieved from the former regime).

Shia peacemakers help in Fallujah

Yestarday something wonderful happened. At a time when Iraqis are being increasingly polarised along religious and ethnic lines, a courageous group of people stood against this. In its first public action the recently formed Muslim Peacemaker Team (MPT) arranged for a group of 15 Shia from Najaf, Kerbala and Baghdad - including 3 women - to visit Fallujah and show solidarity with its vilified Sunni inhabitants. Only two members of the team had visited Fallujah before (I was with them on this exploratory trip in March, another trip 10 days ago including accompanying in medicial aid from the Jarrar family). The flyer which MPT distruibuted explained: "We are among our brothers and sisters in the city of Fallujah to demonstrate our solidarity with you. Our action today is symbolic but... God willing, this project will be . . . the beginning of many projects that will show the world that we are truly one people."

MPT donned orange jump suits and yellow helmets (provided by the city's department of public works) and worked alongside Fallujans to clear streets of rubble and rubbish left over from the US assualt last November. Many passersby and children were excited by the activity and joined in enthusiastically.

Later the MPT members joined in Friday prayers at the Furqan mosque. Earlier they had discussed among themselves whether they should pray in the Sunni or Shia style (which involves a slightly different positioning of the arms and the use of a clay cylinder to rest one's forehead on during prostration). Their conclusion was to use their traditional style because, they said, we are not pretending to be Sunnis, rather we are Shia Iraqis praying alongside our Sunni Iraqi brothers and sisters. Sheikh Abdul Hameed Al-Jumaily presented everyone with inscribed Qu'rans and the Fallujans treated MPT to a generous lunch and they shared an afternoon of fellowship together.

More photos from the trip should be posted here shortly. I am overjoyed that the project went so well and I wish I could have been there myself. I should explain that the project was envisage, organised and paid for by Muslim Peacemaker Team. We merely helped make the connection between Kerbala and Fallujah and went along for the ride.

Media may contact MPT for more information: Sami Rasouli (Najaf) +964-7801-003326, rasouli264@gmail.com and Hussain al-Ibrahemy (Kerbala) +964 7801-076862

Reflections on experiencing another carbomb

So I'm not going to write about all the bombs which go off while I'm here. In part this is because I don't want to worry my parents who'll be reading this blog, and in part because the violence here is just so routine that they hardly register. But this one time I'm going to try and give you a feel of what its like to live through these events on the ground.

So it was about 9.30am this morning and I'd just got a call from an Iraqi friend saying there was a rally happening over in Kharkh (the other side of the river) for the families of detainees. While waiting for her to arrive I was talking with my CPT team mates about our plans to go back to Kerbala to support our friends in the newly formed Muslim Peacemaker Team there.

Suddenly the room shock and we gave each other that "not again" look. "I guess someone better go up on the roof and check" said Sheila. We all assented but no one got up to move, willing that someone else would volunteer. I always crack first in these situations so I sprinted up the 4 flights of stairs. As I reached the third floor the second bomb went off (if you read the BBC report this is the car which flipped over in the centre of the street). "Get away from the windows" someone shouted, since there is a danger of flying glass if the shockwave is powerful enough. However I could see that the windows were open, which means that they'll swing on their hinges with the blast and so there isn't much danger from glass (often you'll see in houses that people leave windows slightly ajar for precisely this reason).

As I reached the top of the stairs I saw our landlady and her housekeeper in a huddle looking South West. This is the direction of the university and, as I emerged with foreboding onto the roof, there was the dreaded plume of black smoke belching forth from the vicinity of Baghdad U, about a mile away along the river. The housekeeper was in floods of tears as her son was over there studying. She fumbled with her phone and called his number. Thankfully he answered, "Mum, I'm in an exam now, not allowed to talk, bye" and hung up. I had a picture of a hall of exam students scribbling away, looking up briefly as the building shock and then returning immediately to their papers until they were disturbed a second time by the ring-tone cacophony of worried parents. This is Baghdad, you've just got to carry on regardless.

I look down from the roof as the activity and sounds of the city continue: the metallic tap tap tap of a man on a donkey cart advertising his gas cylinders for sale, the kids in the park who haven't even paused their game of football, the annoying synthesised jingle (always to the tune of "It’s A Small World" for some unknown reason) played by cars as they reverse, horn honking by drivers stuck helplessly in the vessels of Baghdad's capillaries, narrowed and clogged like a smoker's lungs.

In a spinal reaction I fumble for my camera and take a few snaps of the smoke cloud. I know this is a completely futile gesture, and the photos will be indistinguishable from dozens of similar ones taken over the past two years, but somehow it always feels necessary to reverently document these things. I sink to my knees on the roof and try to concentrate my thoughts enough to pray coherently - for the injured, for the families of the dead and for a change of heart in the people who planned this attack. By the time I look up the smoke cloud has already dispersed, petrol tanks burn up quickly.

I stumble back down to our apartment and my Iraqi friends have arrived. Their main concern is whether the roads will be open, as the bridge we need to cross isn't far from the epicentre of those explosions. They decide to give it a go and we drive towards Jadriya. The traffic is dense but it is moving. Some motorcycles weave through the lanes and I notice that the passengers have video cameras out, so these are the journalists rushing to record pictures which you may have seen today on TV. Our driver is actually a part-time journalist himself and asks me to load up a new film into his camera. My nails are pretty blunt and I'm having difficulty unwrapping the awkwardly wrapped tapes. Eventually I succeed and pass him the camera, by which time we are driving over the bridge, which is open for the time being. There are no obvious signs of the explosions nearby so he decides to drive onwards to the detainee meeting as we'd arranged.

Throughout the day I hear garbled second hand rumours about what happened. Firstly the news is that 10 students were killed; next I hear that no, the blast was at the office of the Badr Brigades (a militia group attached to one of the main Shia parties) and the casualty figure is more like 12. Eventually someone sets us straight that the Interior Ministry seems to have been the intended target and by now the bodycount has risen to 15. After the rally (which was really productive as it happens - we saw old friends who we'd helped in the past and took details of some new cases including a 14yr old kid locked up in Abu G) we try to head home. We hear that by now the bridge has been closed and we wonder what to do. There's a possibility of a lock down on all the bridges, essentially cutting Baghdad in two and marooning us on the wrong side of the city. Our Iraqi friends (naturally) invite us to come and stay at their home on this side, but we still have some important meetings today so decide to try and break through. Heading north and weaving through a maze of back streets (which by now all Iraqi drivers have come to know better than the freeways) we manage to find a bridge which is still open and get back home.

Finally, hours after the event, I wait until the electricity comes on and am able to check the precise details of the attacks on the web and see some photos - there's a good chance that you saw this on the news hours before I did. In the street people discuss the attacks, but in the bored and formulaic way people usually discuss the weather - all you can do about it is moan and just get on with your lives.

So this is not the first and unfortunately I'm sure it won't be the last bombing I experience. But I probably won't blog about them much because they just are a background noise, albeit a painful one. Be aware of the psychological effect they have on the city, pray for the victims and perpetrators, but don't let them drown out the other news. This is the news of Iraqis knuckling down and trying to build lives for their families in spite of the Occupation. This is the news of the guy who's started welding signal-boosting aerials out of scrap metal in order to set up a wireless internet business. This is the news of the family squatting in an abandoned building who's kids nonetheless have the biggest smiles I've ever seen. This is the news of Iraqis who have spent time in detention, have had family members killed or abused by my government, and yet who nonetheless greet me with the traditional "peace upon you" and insist that I drink endless glasses of sweet tea.

Eid Mubarak - Happy Easter

Our phone lines are flooded, would you believe, so I haven't been able to email or blog easily for almost a week. In the meantime I've managed to go to 4 Easter services here in Baghdad, one Chaldean, one Roman Catholic, one Anglian and one ecumenical. I've started teaching myself to read arabic, and was able to semi-sing along with some of the hymns (well, at my current speed i managed about 1 word a line, but it's a start!). Hamdullilah that there have been no attacks on churches over Easter. Also the churches are much fuller (I'm told) than last year, indicating that Iraqis are feeling slightly more secure now. Sadly there have been attacks on Christians in Lebanon today, so please pray for them and for all the Lebanese, that the country which had finally begun to recover from the civil war of the 70s and 80s could be spared a relapse into conflict over the issue of Syrian and US interference.

I spend yestarday traveling around US army bases with a sheikh from Mahmoudia, south of Baghdad, who hosted some Marines for breakfast on Thursday (typical Iraqi hospitality) and they repaid him by searching his house and stealing $2600. Anyhow every military base we went to passed the buck onto another base, so no luck so far. Interestingly some Army grunts we talked with agreed that the Marines might have indeed stolen the money. Whereas US Army units tend to be based in a particular area and so are in some sense locally accountable, the Marines will helicopter into areas that are often far from their home bases, and so they are very hard to trace and it's easier for dishonest Marines to steal with impunity. Of course there is rivalry between the Army and Marines, but there is some good logic in this argument and it fits with the numerous testimonies of theft and other abuse CPT has heard from Iraqis.

I'm going down to Kerbala next week for the arba9een, the end of the 40 day period of mourning for Iman Hussein. This is one of the principal Shia festivals, and we've been invited to attend by friends there. All the roads from Baghdad have been packed for the last few days with pilgrims walking the 3 days route to Kerbala. I'll try and post some photos up soon. Anyhow, I have lots of stories to tell you, and even a couple of humourous anecdotes, but I'll wait until tomorrow when, inshallah, I'll have wi-fi broadband installed in my flat!

P.S. Congratulations to my old classmate Acer Nethercott who was coxing the victorious Oxford boat today!