CND in the News
CND in the News: 11-24 December 2005
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1 Praying for a miracle amid Iraq hostage silence
12 December 2005
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_051212cole.shtml
As the silence continues in Iraq over the fate of four Christian peace
workers taken captive three weeks ago by an unknown militant group, those
who have been working tirelessly for their release prepare for the worst
while hoping and praying for good news.
Estimates of the chances of persuading the Swords of Righteousness (Truth)
Brigades to show mercy towards the men, who went to Iraq to campaign against
war and for detainees, vary considerably. UK Home Office minister Hazel
Blears said last night that “everything that can be done is being
done” to try to secure their release.
Numerous calls for dialogue by official agencies, and for freedom for
the captives by Muslim groups and leading Islamacists, have so far led
to no public word from the kidnappers.
But security experts stress that what really counts is what is going
on behind the scenes, out of the glare of publicity. Much depends on the
identity of the group and how connected or disconnected they are to other
militant organisations, most of whom are horrified by the threats against
people they regard as “friends of Iraq”.
Mr Chris Cole, director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (England),
of which British captive Dr Norman Kember is a trustee, said: “We
are looking for a miracle at this stage.” The Fellowship is an international
network of religious pacifists closely allied with Christian Peacemaker
Teams. Cole has himself risked arrest and prison in his protests against
nuclear weapons and the international arms trade. He added: “We
are all anxious but we remain hopeful and positive. Norman is a very faithful
and strong individual and we want to remain hopeful for him and the other
hostages.”
Bruce Kent, a friend of Dr Kember for 15 years and former CND
general secretary, said: “I haven’t given up hope at all.
They may be working on some way of getting off the hook without losing
face. It’s quite possible they may be preparing a video to say why
they are releasing them.” One hundred supporters of the four abducted
peace workers endured cold and snow in Ontario yesterday to maintain a
vigil outside the US embassy. Pax Christi and others are organising another
in London tonight.
The focus of the waiting and watching for the Christian friends of the
men, including Dr Kember’s on Baptist Church in Pinner, is the season
of Advent, when believers reflect on the impending birth of Christ into
the world – celebrated at Christmas.
Commented Simon Barrow, co-director of the UK Christian think-tank Ekklesia,
which is associated with CPT: “The courage of Norman, Tom, Harmeet
and Jim is extraordinary. They believe that active love and peacemaking
is in the end the only way to challenge hatred, violence and injustice.”
He continued: “As followers of Jesus who respect all people, they
know that he was killed, but could not be silenced by death. We desperately
hope and pray that they will be spared – but whatever happens, their
testimony to life has brought together in common humanity people who are
called enemies. There is no going back on that.”
Meanwhile, a member of the peacemaking group from the USA has delayed
her return to that country because of the hostage situation, reports the
Athens County News.
Peggy Gish, who with her husband, Art, is a member of Christian Peacemaker
Teams (CPT), says that she was in San Francisco visiting family when she
learned that four CPT members had been abducted in Iraq. She got the news
“just three days before I was scheduled to return to Iraq for another
four-month time.”
Gish commented, “I know Tom Fox and Jim Loney personally through
working with them in Iraq. Even though we knew it could happen at any
time, it is still a shock when it happened. I realized it could easily
have been me if I had been there at the time. It seems a bit ironic that
they were taken after leaving a meeting with an Iraqi organization to
work together on documenting the abuses of prisoners by Iraqi forces.”
She said she has been asked by CPT to stay out of Iraq “for an
undefined time to be a support person” in nearby Jordan while the
hostage situation is worked out, though she would personally prefer to
be inside Iraq right now. “It’s like wanting to be with your
family when it’s going through a crisis,” she explained.
The abducted CPT men are Tom Fox (USA), Norman Kember (UK), James Loney
and Harmeet Singh Sooden (Canada). Pleas for them have been made from
prison by Abu Qatada (who has been accused by intelligence agencies of
being Osama bin Laden's ambassador in Europe, a claim he denies) and by
former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg.
Meanwhile, the body of Egyptian engineer Ibrahim Sayed Hilali has been
found, a day after he was seized by gunmen in Tikrit. His capture was
separate to that of the four peacemakers.
A German engineer, a French Muslim aid worker and hundreds of Iraqis
have also disappeared.
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