A Day in Paradise

World news from The Times and the Sunday Times - Times Online

And finally a bit of good news…

Three Western peace workers held hostage in Iraq, including retired British professor Norman Kember, were freed today in a special forces operation near Baghdad after four months in captivity.

Details of the operation early this morning are still unclear but it was thought to have been led by Britain’s Special Air Service (SAS) and to have involved other units from the United States and Iraq.

Mr Kember, 74, was kidnapped with two Canadians, James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, in Baghdad on November 26.

A fourth member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams abducted alongside them, Tom Fox, an American, was killed two weeks ago. Mr Fox was found handcuffed and shot dead on a rubbish dump in west Baghdad on March 9, his battered body wrapped in a blanket and stuffed in a plastic bag.

I’ve wanted to comment on Tom Fox, the member of the team who was executed. Anyone who is interested should listen to the March 13th episode of Democracy Now, which talks with the CPT coordinators about Tom Fox and his execution.

The most powerful part of the broadcast was the reading of the “Statement of Conviction” as written by Tom Fox and Matthew Chandler in October of last year. Following is the rush transcript taken from the Democracy Now website. Read it through till the end.

“We members of Christian Peacemakers Teams in Iraq are aware of the many risks both Iraqis and internationals currently face. However, we are convinced at this time that the risks, while significant, do not outweigh our purpose in remaining. Many Iraqi friends and human rights workers have welcomed us as nonviolent independent presence. During the previous year, they asked us to tell their stories, since they could not easily be heard, nor could most flee to a safer country. We continue to act as a resource to connect citizens of Iraq with human rights organizations, both local and international, as well as accompanying them as they interact with the multinational military personnel and Iraqi provisional government officials.

”As Peacemaking Team, we need to cross boundaries, help soldiers and other armed actors be humane, and invite them to refuse unjust orders. We need to help preserve what is human in all of us and so offer glimpses of hope in a dark time.

”We reject kidnapping and hostage-taking wholesale. If any of us are taken hostage, absolutely no ransom will be paid. In such an event, C.P.T. will attempt to communicate with the hostage takers or their sponsors and work against journalists’ inclinations to vilify and demonize the offenders. We will try to understand the motives of these actions and to articulate them, while maintaining a firm stance that such actions are wrong. If appropriate, C.P.T. will work with diplomatic officials from our representative governments to avoid a violent outcome. We reject the use of violent force to save our lives, should we be kidnapped, held hostage or caught in the middle of violent conflict situation.

”We also reject violence to punish anyone who harms us. We ask for equal justice in the arrest and trial of anyone, soldier or civilian, who commits an act of violence, and we ask that there be no retaliation on their relatives or property. We forgive those who consider us their enemies. Therefore, any penalty should be in the spirit of restorative justice, rather than in the form of violent retribution. We hope that in loving both friends and enemies and by intervening nonviolently to aid those who are systematically oppressed, we can contribute in some small way to transforming this volatile situation.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 23rd, 2006 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Heroes, Executions, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.