A couple of news pieces on the Ekklesia website giving some insight into the experiences of Norman Kember
and the future plans of the Christian Peacemaker Teams regarding their Iraq presence ...
'Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), which has been actively promoting non-violence in some of the world’s hotspots for some 18 years, has confirmed that it remains committed to working in Iraq – having reflected on the lessons of the high-profile kidnapping of four of its members from November 2005 to March 2006.
Speaking to the BBC last week, CPT co-director Doug Pritchard said that a “number of people” are lined up to engage in work inside Iraq. He could not reveal details for security reasons, but said that Christian Peacemaker Teams felt that it was appropriate to respond to continuing requests from Iraqi partners.'
...'he said that they were able to contribute to “a different kind of relationship between the West and Iraq”, by representing an alternative to occupation, sanctions and coercion – which has often been backed by the Christian rhetoric of President Bush and his supporters on the US religious right.
As for the efficaciousness of CPT’s work, Pritchard stressed that “any kind of construction of civil society is very slow after 30 years of repressive dictatorship under Saddam Hussein and now three years of war and uncertainty.'
