Cari amici,
sabato 26 novembre Norman Kember, membro anziano del Fellowship of Reconciliation inglese e del Baptist Peace Fellowship, è stato rapito in Iraq insieme ad altri tre operatori sociali canadesi e degli USA. Norman è fortemente impegnato nel lavoro per la nonviolenza e la riconciliazione e sperava di visitare i Christian Peacemakers teams.
Preghiamo per lui e la moglie Pat a Londra.
Maria Antonietta
IFOR has been informed that Norman Kember, a long standing member of FOR England and of the Baptist Peace Fellowship, who is in his 70's, was kidnapped in Iraq on Saturday together with three other American aid workers from Canada and the USA. I have known Norman for many years and valued his faith and his commitment to peace.
Norman, a long time worker for non-violence and who strongly opposed the invasion of Iraq, was hoping to visit the Christian Peacemaker team in Iraq and use the information and experience from his visit to Iraq to continue his work in the United Kingdom for peace and reconciliation.
Please keep him, and his wife Pat in London, in your prayers.
At present IFOR has not been asked to initiate any further action but information and suggestions would be welcome.
David Mumford
International Coordinator
International Fellowship of Reconciliation
Spoorstraat 38
1815 BK Alkmaar,
Netherlands
tel: +31 72 512 3014
fax: +31 72 515 1102
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COMUNICATO
Martedì 29 novembre 2005
“Volontari del Christian Peacemaker Teams rapiti in Iraq”
Il 26 novembre 2005, 2 membri del Christian Pacemaker Teams (CPT) e due membri di una delegazione CPT in visita sono stati sequestrati a Baghdad.
Uno degli ostaggi è Norman Kember, partecipante ad una delegazione in visita breve.
L’Ufficio degli Esteri britannico ha rilasciato il nome di Kember domenica.
I nome degli altri ostaggi sono stati tenuti nascosti nell’interesse della loro sicurezza.
Christian Pacemaker Teams è presente in Iraq da ottobre 2002, fornendo reports di prima mano dalla regione, documentando e attirando l’attenzione del mondo sugli abusi condotti dall’Esercito Statunitense sui prigionieri Iracheni, mettendo in contatto i cittadini Iracheni con organizzazioni per i Diritti Umani locali ed internazionali, accompagnando gli Iracheni quando hanno necessità di interagire con il personale militare internazionale e gli ufficiali del governo dell’Iraq.
Amici Iracheni e personale nell’ambito dei Diritti Umani hanno accolto il gruppo come presenza nonviolenta e indipendente, chiedendogli di raccontare le storie dell’Iraq.
In una “Dichiarazione di Consapevolezza”, i membri di lungo periodo del gruppo avevano dichiarato di “essere consapevoli dei numerosi rischi che sia gli iracheni che gli internazionali corrono” e avevano affermato che i rischi non sopravanzavano il loro proposito di rimanere.
Esprimono la speranza che “amando sia gli amici che i nemici e intervenendo in modo nonviolento per aiutare coloro che sono sistematicamente oppressi, possiamo contribuire, in piccola parte, alla trasformazione di questa situazione instabile”.
CPT non giustifica l’uso della forza e della violenza per salvare le proprie vite, siano i suoi membri rapiti, tenuti in ostaggio, o catturati nel mezzo di una situazione di conflitto.
CPT manda in situazioni di crisi e zone militarizzate del mondo gruppi di peacemakers preparati.
Tali gruppi di lungo periodo ospitano regolarmente anche delegazioni di breve periodo (due settimane) di attivisti impegnati per la pace e i Diritti Umani nelle zone di conflitto, che condividono il lavoro con i civili per documentare abusi e sviluppare alternative nonviolente nel contesto di un conflitto letale.
Il gruppo CPT in Iraq ha ospitato un totale di 120 persone in 16 delegazioni negli ultimi tre anni.
Oltre all’Iraq, gruppi preparati di volontari CPT sono attualmente presenti in Colombia, Palestina, Canada, e confine tra Stati Uniti e Messico.
Kryss Chupp
Christian Peacemaker Teams
- Training Coordinator
- Publications Coordinator
P.O. Box 6508
Chicago, IL 60680
Tel: 773-277-0253
Fax: 773-277-0291
e-mail: kryss@cpt.org
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Call for Prayer Vigils for Abducted Peaceworkers
01/12/05 - Christians and Muslims, peace organisations, friends and supporters of Norman Kember, the British peace activist abducted in Iraq, will hold a silent, candle-lit prayer vigil this Friday evening (2nd December) on the steps of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church, Trafalgar Square, central London. The vigil will take place from 6pm – 7pm. Please do come along if you can. Norman Kember, Tom Fox, Harmeet Singh Sooden and James Loney were in Baghdad as part of a delegation to offer solidarity to the Iraqi people.
Alternatively you may like to hold a prayer vigil in your local area over the weekend. Prayer vigils are already being planned in Derby and Oxford. Please let us know if you would like us to publicise your prayer vigil.
Palestinian Muslims Appeal for Release of Abducted Peaceworkers
01/12/05 - Al-Jazeera has just run an impressive appeal by Palestinian Muslims for the release of the four abducted peaceworkers in Iraq "We demand that these aid workers be released immediately," said Mufti Ikrema Sabri, the Palestinians' top Muslim clergyman. "We tell them that these aid workers have stood beside Palestinian people, and it's our duty now to stand beside them." Sabri said Islam opposes taking civilians hostage and said such kidnappings are inhumane. Palestinians in several towns said they had worked with the three activists and asked Sabri to issue the appeal." For more details see story here.
Norman Kember Interview on Premier Radio
30/11/05 - About a week before he travelled to Iraq, Norman Kember gave an interview to Premier Radio, setting out the reasons for going on the delegation. You can listen to the interview here
Norman Kember Abduction
29/11/05 - The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FoR) is saddened and shocked to hear of the abduction of one of its Trustees, Norman Kember, in Iraq. Norman was in Iraq as part of a small peace delegation to meet with those who are suffering under the terrible conditions that currently exist there. The delegation was hoping to meet with community leaders and civil society groups, to visit hospitals, schools and mosques and to talk to ordinary Iraqis. The delegation would then be able to give a first hand report on the conditions that they met in Iraq when they returned.
Norman is a thoughtful and caring man, a long-time Christian pacifist who has consistently been opposed to war and violence and has spent a great deal of his time speaking about and promoting nonviolence.
Norman was well aware of the risks in taking such a peace initiative but has always been committed to the idea that peacemaking is a risky business and that if we want to build real peace and security in our world ordinary people have to do all they can to build bridges and to try to help opponents - enemies – have a better understanding of each other.
Chris Cole, Director of FoR said “The Fellowship of Reconciliation is praying for the safe return of Norman and his fellow abductees so that he may continue his life’s commitment to the work of peace and reconciliation.”
We will post more news here as soon as we can
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articolo di Aljazeera su iniziative palestinesi ed arabe per la liberazione dei Christian Pacemaker Teams (CPT)
US, UK
blamed for Iraq kidnappings
Wednesday 30 November 2005, 23:51 Makka Time, 20:51 GMT
The CPT said its team had been in Iraq since October 2002
The US- and Canada-based Christian Peacemaker Teams has blamed the what it called the illegal occupation of Iraq by US and British troops for the kidnapping of its four workers in Iraq.
The Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) said in a statement that "the actions of the US and UK governments" were to blame for the abduction of the four activists.
The organisation is an umbrella group for pacifist church activism. It issued a statement on Tuesday confirming that the four men associated with their organisation were kidnapped in Iraq by an armed group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade.
Aljazeera aired a video showing four peace activists who were captured in Iraq by a previously unknown group, but it could not verify any of the information on the tape.
The tape, which aired on Tuesday, showed four men and a British passport belonging to Norman Kember. The four workers are an American, a Briton and two Canadians.
CPT said it had had a team in Iraq since October 2002, working with US and Iraqi detainees and training others in nonviolent intervention and human rights documentation.
Iraqi appeal
Iraq's influential Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) has appealed to the abductors to release the four. The AMS said in a statement received by Aljazeera.net that those workers have a respectable record for helping the poor and disadvantaged.
"We demand that these aid workers be released immediately"
Mufti Ikrema Sabri,
top Palestinian Muslim scholar
The AMS has helped secure the release of many foreigners abducted in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.
Abductors of the four workers accuse them of being spies for the "occupation forces".
Fighters in Iraq have claimed that they set up a fair trial for the people they abduct.
CPT officials in Hebron in the West Bank have vehemently denied the charges, stressing that the four opposed the war on Iraq and Bush's policies.
Rich Meyer, a CPT leader, told a news conference in Hebron on Wednesday: "We are very worried about our friends. We fear that whoever is holding them has made a mistake. They are four men who came to Iraq to work for peace. They oppose the occupation. They are not spies."
Palestinian appeal
Palestinians led by their top Muslim cleric appealed to Iraqi fighters on Wednesday to release the four, saying three of them had spent time in the West Bank aiding the Palestinians.
While in the West Bank, American Tom Fox and the two Canadians demonstrated against the construction of Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank, helped Palestinian children to get through Israeli army checkpoints and pitched in with the olive harvest, Palestinians across the West Bank said Wednesday.
Mufti Ikrema Sabri, the Palestinians' leading Muslim clergyman, said:
Palestinian civil society activists
want the four Westerners freed
"We demand that these aid workers be released immediately. We tell them that these aid workers have stood beside Palestinian people, and it's our duty now to stand beside them."
Sabri said Islam opposes taking civilians hostage and said such kidnappings are inhumane.
Palestinians in several towns said they had worked with the three activists and asked Sabri to issue the appeal.
Hundreds of international activists have aided the Palestinians in largely peaceful demonstrations during more than five years of fighting with Israel.
Shawkat Samha, mayor of Jayyus village in the West Bank, said: "They subjected themselves to grave dangers when they stood in front of Israeli bulldozers.
Against occupation
"'We knew them as people who were against occupation and supported freedom for occupied peoples, like the Palestinian and Iraqi peoples."
He said that he had met Fox and recognised him in the video shown on Aljazeera.
Fared Tomallah, from the West Bank village of Salfit, said he cried when he recognised Harmeet Sooden, a Canadian, on television.
CPT activist Rich Meyer says one
captive was to return to Hebron
"I saw him many times suffering through tear gas with the Palestinians when demonstrating against the wall," Tomallah said, referring to the separation barrier.
"We appeal to Iraqi insurgents to release him, and we assure them that these people have nothing to do with the occupation."
The local branch of Christian Peacemaking Teams in Hebron said that one of the captives, James Loney from Toronto, Canada, had helped Palestinian children get through Israeli army roadblocks in the divided city.
Loney was slated to return to Hebron next week to continue his work, said Rich Meyer, an activist with the group.
"The kidnapping prevents him from coming here to work," Meyer said.
Aljazeera.net's Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank and Ahmed Janabi contributed to this report
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Christian Peacemaker Teams
http://www.cpt.org/
MIR
http://www.ifor.org/
http://www.for.org.uk/
http://www.forusa.org/
http://www.bpfna.org/
http://www.riconciliazione.it/
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