[amc] FW: MennoLink Digest of 07 Mar 2003 13:28:10
- From: "Smithey, Lee A." <LASMITHEY@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "'timebeing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'" <timebeing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2003 11:55:05 -0600
Christian Peacemaker Teams seems pretty committed to keeping human shields
around civillian structures in Iraq.
Lee
-----Original Message-----
From: CPTnet.editor.guest.445947@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:CPTnet.editor.guest.445947@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 1:28 PM
To: menno.org.cpt.news@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: MennoLink Digest of 07 Mar 2003 13:28:10
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Subject: digest contents
CPTnet editor IRAQ URGENT ACTION: Write and/or call you your
Representatives.
CPTnet editor IRAQ URGENT ACTION: Correction and Addendum
CPTnet editor IRAQ: Human Shields--a perspective from Baghdad
CPTnet editor ASUBPEESCHOSEEWAGONG UPDATE: January 1-16, 2003
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From: CPTnet.editor.guest.445947@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (CPTnet editor, Webster, NY)
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2003 13:27:48 CST
Subject: IRAQ URGENT ACTION: Write and/or call you your Representatives.
To: menno.org.cpt.news
CPTnet
March 6, 2003
IRAQ URGENT ACTION: Write and/or call you your Representatives.
Christian Peacemaker Teams has been in Iraq since October, joining with
Iraq Peace Team (IPT) to accompany threatened Iraqi civilians. The team has
developed relationships with Iraqi families, hospitals, orphanages and
churches. They have visited mosques and NGOs, and have travelled to Basrah
and Mosul.
The U.S. press has reported that in the first forty-eight hours of a
potential escalation, it will launch 800 cruise missiles, 3000 smart bombs,
800 bombers, and will have six aircraft carriers with seventy jets a piece
running multiple missions. The name of the potential attack is "Shock and
Awe."
In the event of an escalation, CPT and IPT members will continue to
accompany prayerfully Iraqi civilians at specific places, and document the
on-going catastrophe of war. See below for a list of places CPT will
accompany.
The CPT team calls people of faith to do all they can to stop further
bombing of Iraq, including writing and phoning their federal
representatives, emphasizing the civilian places where CPT and IPT members
will be present.
Current CPTers in Iraq are
Americans: Peggy Gish, Scott Kerr, Cliff Kindy and Betty Scholten
Canadians: Lisa Martens and Stewart Vriesinga.
Over the next several months CPT expects to be sending additional North
American delegates to accompany the locations listed below.
Where the CPTers and members of the Iraq Peace Team will be:
1. Amarya Shelter
2. Al Dar Hotel - St. Raphael's Church and Hospital and Sisters of Charity
Orphanage
3. Al Fanar Hotel
4. Basra
5. CARE International
6. University of Baghdad
7. Syrian Catholic Church
8. Al Taji Electrical facility or Al Wathab Water Treatment plant
9. Boat on Tigris River or Shalt Al Arab
CANADA
Contact information on Members of Parliament is available at www.parl.gc.ca
UNITED STATES
Congressional Switchboard: 202-224-3121; toll free: 800-839 5276.
WWW.congressmerge.org will give U.S. Citizens addresses fax numbers and
other information they need when they enter their zip code.
The White House Mailing Address
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
The White House Phone Numbers
VOICE: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
_______________
To stop receiving messages from CPTNET on MennoLink, send a message with
only the word, "suspend," in the body to server@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative among
Mennonite and Church of the Brethren congregations and
Friends Meetings that supports violence reduction
efforts around the world. Contact CPT, POB 6508
Chicago, IL 60680; Telephone: 773-277-0253
Fax: 773-277-0291.
To receive news or discussion of CPT issues by e-mail, fill out the form
found on our WEB page at
http://www.prairienet.org/cpt/
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From: CPTnet.editor.guest.445947@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (CPTnet editor, Webster, NY)
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2003 14:35:44 CST
Subject: IRAQ URGENT ACTION: Correction and Addendum
To: menno.org.cpt.news
CPTnet
March 6, 2003
IRAQ URGENT ACTION: Correction and Addendum
The website address for finding one's member of congress is
www.congressmerge.com, not www.congressmerge.org.
Additional places that CPTers working in Iraq may be staying include the al
Mansour Pediactric hospital, which is situated near a water treatment
facility, a Dominican convent and with individual Iraqi families.
_______________
To stop receiving messages from CPTNET on MennoLink, send a message with
only the word, "suspend," in the body to server@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative among
Mennonite and Church of the Brethren congregations and
Friends Meetings that supports violence reduction
efforts around the world. Contact CPT, POB 6508
Chicago, IL 60680; Telephone: 773-277-0253
Fax: 773-277-0291.
To receive news or discussion of CPT issues by e-mail, fill out the form
found on our WEB page at
http://www.prairienet.org/cpt/
----------------------------------MennoLink--------------------------------
From: CPTnet.editor.guest.445947@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (CPTnet editor, Webster, NY)
Date: Fri, 07 Mar 2003 12:45:55 CST
Subject: IRAQ: Human Shields--a perspective from Baghdad
To: menno.org.cpt.news
CPTnet
March 7, 2002
IRAQ: Human Shields--a perspective from Baghdad
by Cliff Kindy
More than 120 Human Shields have gathered from thirty-four countries to be a
positive witness against the escalating war against Iraq. They have based
their effort on an idea by Ken O'Keefe a U.S. veteran who experienced the
horror of the first Gulf war in 1991.
Media and war advocates have denigrated the term "human shields" by
focusing on times governments have forced persons to go to vulnerable
sites, often military, as a barrier to an attack. Forgotten in this mindset
is the mother who shields her child from an attacker or a friend who offers
his life to save another. This present day experiment is an offspring of the
action of the mother and friend.
This experiment was complicated as the volunteers accepted the room and
board hospitality of the Iraqi government. The site selection
committee of the Human Shields had been visiting sites (water treatment,
electrical generation, food storage, oil refinery, and hospitals) to check
out living facilities, neighborhood connections, communication
capabilities, and compromising factors such as nearby military
encampments. Problems escalated as the government tried to push the
presence of Shields at certain sites.
The initial response of the Human Shields was to pull back even those
volunteers who had already been deployed. Some chose to leave; others wanted
to
maintain the commitment to the Iraqi people and to work out some
compromise to continue what was trusted to be a nonviolent barrier to US
attacks on facilities that sustain the civilian infrastructure in Iraq. The
dialogue continues in its stumbling fashion.
In mid-February two Iraq Peace Team (IPT) members one from CPT, joined a
Human Shield witness at the Ameriyah Shelter as a silent, prayerful protest
of the 1991 US
bombing of that civilian bomb shelter in a family neighborhood of Baghdad.
Four hundred and seven civilians seeking shelter were incinerated by a U.S.
Smart bomb.
Since last October, IPT/CPT has been visiting similar sites (along with
families, churches and universities) to remind the US government that they
promised not to target such sites. Banners reminded the military that to
target such sites is a war crime.
IPT/CPT continues visiting these sites and is preparing to be a presence
should the war escalate. IPT/CPT deaths would be a grim reminder that war
usually targets places where civilians are the ones that die.
_______________
To stop receiving messages from CPTNET on MennoLink, send a message with
only the word, "suspend," in the body to server@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative among
Mennonite and Church of the Brethren congregations and
Friends Meetings that supports violence reduction
efforts around the world. Contact CPT, POB 6508
Chicago, IL 60680; Telephone: 773-277-0253
Fax: 773-277-0291.
To receive news or discussion of CPT issues by e-mail, fill out the form
found on our WEB page at
http://www.prairienet.org/cpt/
----------------------------------MennoLink--------------------------------
From: CPTnet.editor.guest.445947@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (CPTnet editor, Webster, NY)
Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2003 19:32:49 CST
Subject: ASUBPEESCHOSEEWAGONG UPDATE: January 1-16, 2003
To: menno.org.cpt
CPTnet
February 5, 2003
ASUBPEESCHOSEEWAGONG UPDATE: January 1-16, 2003
Sunday, January 5
Robert Holmes and Matt Schaaf attended mass at Notre Dame Roman Catholic
Church in Kenora. Conversations led to a scheduled "Peace Night" for January
23rd at the parish hall.
The following Sunday at Knox United Church likewise rendered two
opportunities to share CPT's work and involvement in the area with members
of the Kenora community later in February.
Monday, January 6
Representatives of the Okiijida Warriors Society, Treaty 3, and the
Sakatcheway Anishinabe School invited David Neufeld to an early morning
meeting
Treaty 3 is the document signed by 28 chiefs of the Anishinabe Nation and
the then-young government of Canada in 1873 guaranteeing rights and
responsibilities to all parties, including access to traditional use lands
for the people of Asubpeeschoseewagong.
CPT was invited to be present at each action, not only around this
community, but also with other Treaty 3 communities contemplating similar
actions. This sort of recognition and invitation from Treaty 3
representatives is particularly important, not only for CPT, but for others
to Know about as various roles are clarified.
Tuesday, January 7
Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers in an unmarked car came out from
Kenora to the blockade early in the morning. They walked through the camp
and asked a few questions, but said they were just checking on things for
their superiors. Grassy Narrows Post constables frequently check the camp,
but it is unusual for OPP officers to drive the seventy-five kilometers from
Kenora, particularly in an unmarked "ghost" car.
Friday, January 10
The team and the Okiijida Warriors Society made presentations to
approximately forty students and staff of the Sakatcheway Anishinabe School
at the blockade. Both presentations addressed the need for students to
respond should a confrontation arise--particularly in the event that a
Canadian court issues an injunction ordering that the Anishinabe allow
logging vehicles to pass. The Team's presentation centered on role-plays and
interactive tools to bring out some of the potential areas of conflict.
Team members challenged the students to think not only about what they might
do when confronted with a potentially violent situation, but also about how
they defined violence.
Monday January 13
A Church group from Shoal Lake First Nation (on the Ontario/Manitoba border)
arrived at camp for a worship service, bringing greetings and a message of
solidarity to the members of the blockade camp. Earlier in the day,
representatives from Lac Seul, a community about ninety km east over logging
roads, also arrived at the blockade, and left one of their band to join the
effort as a sign of support. These two communities are among the most
visible supporters of the blockade effortst Asubpeeschoseewagong.
Tuesday January 14
Two additional utility trailers rented by the Sakatcheway Anishinabe School
arrived at the blockade, along with a larger generator. Participants in the
blockade will utilize the additional space as classrooms. Most of the high
school students will now come out to the blockade every weekday for
instruction, and to learn more about environmental awareness and solidarity
efforts. The blockade encampment has grown to six trailers, a large
roundhouse, a teepee housing the sacred fire, cookhouse, and three temporary
shelters.
Thursday January 16
A Treaty 3 Chiefs meeting was held at the blockade roundhouse. Of the
twenty-eight chiefs representing the Treaty 3 native communities of
Northwestern Ontario, sixteen attended, including the Grand Chief Leon
Jourdaine. The chiefs agreed via consensus to provide human and fiscal
resources to sustain the blockade, with the understanding that an expansion
or duplication of the blockade action may become necessary throughout the
Anishinabe Nation.
_______________
To stop receiving messages from CPTNET on MennoLink, send a message with
only the word, "suspend," in the body to server@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative among
Mennonite and Church of the Brethren congregations and
Friends Meetings that supports violence reduction
efforts around the world. Contact CPT, POB 6508
Chicago, IL 60680; Telephone: 773-277-0253
Fax: 773-277-0291.
To receive news or discussion of CPT issues by e-mail, fill out the form
found on our WEB page at
http://www.prairienet.org/cpt/
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