CPT Members
November 29, 2005
By Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Four members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) working in Baghdad were abducted there this past Saturday, November 26. Having worked with the organization over many years, we feel deepest respect for their courage and tenacity. CPTs statement in response to the kidnapping appears on their website.
In the course of this year alone, many thousands of Iraqis have experienced anguish because their loved ones have been abducted, tortured, disappeared and murdered. The Christian Peacemaker Team members dedicate themselves to living alongside ordinary Iraqis during this time of intense suffering. They have steadily reported the effects of occupation and war on the many people whom they’ve befriended since they first began working in Iraq in October 2002.
Tom Fox, one of the four CPT members being held, maintains a blog which we recommend for further insight into CPT’s work.
Reporters and human rights worker around the world are indebted to the careful work done by Christian Peacemaker Team members as they documentated abuses suffered by people detained in U.S. run prisons.
CPT has consciously chosen to not take sides in the conflict that rages in Iraq—other than to take the side of advocating for Iraqis who are treated unfairly and are suffering during this war.
Members of CPT willingly undertook the risks of living amongst Iraqis, in a common neighborhood outside of the infamous Green Zone. They sought no protection in arms or armed guards—trusting in, and benefiting from, the goodwill of the Iraqi people.
We harbor no ill will towards those responsible for the abduction of our friends and colleagues. Just as we hope no harm will befall our friends and colleagues—we trust that no harm will befall those who abducted them. We hope and pray that those responsible for the abduction of the four CPT members will recognize the common humanity they and their captives share and release them unharmed.
