January 27, 2006
by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE – Although there is still no word from the captors of four Christian peace activists in Baghdad, the international Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) there is resuming its work of helping the families of Iraqi detainees find imprisoned family members.

On Dec. 26, unidentified militants abducted four male team members, who hail from Canada, Britain and the United States.

The kidnappers threatened to kill them unless Iraqi prisoners were released from jails, but postponed the executions. There has been no word since then.

In a statement issued on Jan. 26, the CPT said: "Today, 26 January 2006, marks two months since our brothers – Jim Loney, Norman Kember, Tom Fox and Harmeet Sooden – were pulled away from their work in Iraq.

"Although we cannot have them with us right now, we choose to continue the work they are doing: exposing the abuses of Iraqi detainees and calling for an end to the military occupation of Iraq."

Since the kidnapping, the Baghdad team has limited its travel in the city and focused solely on the hostages.

CPT has held daily vigils since Jan. 15 in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom as part of a "Shining the Light" campaign intended to expose the suffering of ordinary Iraqis and the abuse of detainees and to call for an end to the U.S. occupation.

Over the next few days, CPT will hold processions at the White House, the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Congress and the Veterans' Administration in Washington, DC.

The team was involved in the 2004 disclosure of abuses in Abu Ghraib prison.

Anita David, of Lakeview Presbyterian Church in Chicago, and Beth Pyles, of First Presbyterian Church in Fairmont, WV, both work for CPT from an apartment in Baghdad. David was scheduled to return to the United States this month, but has chosen to remain. She has been in Iraq since Oct. 13.

Pyles arrived three weeks ago after working briefly with Iraqi refugees in Jordan.

"There's work to do," David told the Presbyterian News Service by telephone, explaining her decision to stay. "We've decided to get back to work again. We're stepping out again."

David said she accompanied an Iraqi human-rights worker to a military compound last week to seek the release of two female detainees, both of whom were later freed. She is also helping a family with a child who needs medical treatment not available in Iraq.

"People are contacting us, and we're accompanying them," she said, adding that team members haven't forgotten their abducted colleagues: "We're still on high alert. We want our friends back."

David said the team lights candles during worship each morning for the missing men.

In yesterday's release, the team said: "Those of us in CPT and the families of Jim, Norman, Tom and Harmeet continue to feel their absence acutely. We worry about their physical and emotional wellbeing and long to see them, speak to them and be with them again. We know that thousands of Iraqi families share our grief and yearning as they wait for loved ones caught in a prison system over which they have no control.

"We also know that the world cares less about their fate than it does about westerners currently in captivity, and for this we are truly sorry."

Presbyterian News Service