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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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