CPT comment following the death of Tom Fox -Mar 13, 2006

By Michele Naar-Obed

It's 3am, March 11. The official word of our beloved colleague, Tom Fox, has been made public. Tom's body was found along the road to the Baghdad airport. He had been held captive in Iraq for over 100 days. Our three other colleagues, Harmeet Sooden, Jim Loney and Norman Kember are still missing.

We pray earnestly for their safe release. We pray that the hearts and minds of those holding our colleagues will be softened and they will return our friends to their families and communities. We pray that our own hearts will not be hardened by this tragedy and that we are able to put any feelings of anger or animosity to rest.

I returned from Iraq last Wednesday, March 8, 2006. For 2 months I worked with the team in Baghdad. Our work there seems endless and much of it feels beyond human ability. --[O]ur work has often felt like we were putting our fingers in the holes of dikes that are overflowing, not with water, but with blood.

There has been way too much blood shed in Iraq. Now the blood of Tom is added to that river. We know what it is like to lose a loved one to the insanity of war. Just like the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi families and
the thousands of families of US and MNF [Multinational Forces] soldiers, we know what it feels like to grieve.

Early this morning, I awoke to the sound of car bombs, the sight of black smoke rising and the sound of guns. This time, it was just a dream. However, somewhere in Iraq at that very moment, those sights and sounds were real.

It is enough. It has been enough. We continue to call on our government and the governments of the multinational forces to lay down their weapons and return to their homes. We cry out for an end to this insane vicious cycle of violence. We call for an end to the making of widows, widowers, orphans, homeless and displaced peoples.

We call for healing, rebuilding and repairing, not just of physical properties, but of relationship, trust, human dignity and human rights for all people.

CPT still has team members in Iraq working against all odds to be a part of that healing. I've met MNF soldiers in Iraq who want desperately to be part of that healing and know in their hearts that it can't be done with guns and bombs. They feel trapped by "orders" from [their leaders] but they work the best they can to extend their hands in goodwill.

Then there are the thousands of Iraqis, most of whom we will never meet or know, that are laying down their lives, and working with a fervor to heal, rebuild, and repair their fractured and tattered country. Their work is valiant and this groundswell of good and decent people has not been trampled down yet. I've had the privilege of working with some of them.

Right now, it's hard to think of going on, but go on we will. We have to.

Michele Naar-Obed

Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative of the historic peace churches (Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and Quakers) with support and membership from a range of Catholic and Protestant denominations. Supporting violence-reduction efforts around the world is its mandate.

Article reproduced with the kind permission of Christian Peacemaker Teams