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Dahr Jamail  is an independent journalist stationed in Iraq.  Mr. Jamail submits his work to various publications around the world, and also has a web site at http://dahrjamailiraq.com  

Dispatches from Iraq


by Dahr Jamail

 

the CPT

 

Four members of the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT)

http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album40

in Baghdad have been abducted and taken hostage recently. This event is

horribly dismaying for me, as I've known embers of CPT since before I

ever ventured to Iraq.

 

Back in November of 2003, while sitting in Amman, Jordan waiting to go

into Iraq, I met a member of CPT who had been working in Palestine. He

told me he was walking with Palestinian children as they went to school,

in order to prevent them from being attacked by Israeli settlers.

Later I would learn that this same individual had returned to Palestine

and was beaten so severely by Israeli settlers that he was hospitalized

for several weeks.

 

Last Thanksgiving, November 24, 2004 I shared a meal with members of

their team in Baghdad, along with several of our Iraqi friends. We gave

thanks together for being in Baghdad in solidarity with our Iraqi

brothers and sisters. All of us - the CPT members and myself -- were

then and remain fully committed to getting out the truth about the

illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq.

 

On the website of CPT is a quote of scriptural reference which reads,

"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's

friends."

 

This is what the members of CPT do in Baghdad. I've seen them do this

first-hand. They graciously opened their files of documents to me when I

was working on stories about Iraqis who have been in US military

detention centers inside Iraq. They have worked extensively on fighting

for the rights of Iraqi detainees and supporting their families. The

team documents home raids conducted by the US military, and have worked

to assist internally displaced people (refugees) inside of Iraq who are

left homeless by heavy-handed US military operations such as those in

Fallujah and Al-Qa'im.

 

In addition, CPT has been instrumental in bringing media attention to

villages and towns in Iraq which have suffered collective punishment by

the US military.

 

Each of the members of CPT in Iraq I have met are committed to

non-violence and being a truthful witness to the ravages of war and

occupation. They have been accused by their captors of being spies or

missionaries. This is simply not the case. If there is any group

operating in Iraq today who works tirelessly to end the suffering of

Iraqis, it is CPT.

 

Reprinted with the author's permission.


Posted  December 06, 2005

URL:  www.thecitizenfsr.org                     SM 2000-2011


 


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