April 13, 2004

Hello Friends and Supporters!

Good to hear from you! I miss the farm and green things and the singing of birds etc., although in the early morning I hear some occasionally amidst the RPG, mortar and bombs. (Two this morning while I was on the roof this morning--Rockett Propelled Grenades--both of which landed in the "Green Zone" --the Coalition Provisional Authority palace which formerly belonged to Saddam.

These are stressful times here, mostly because we are trying to get a delegation safely out of the country. Many foreigners are being taken hostage and/or killed on the road o Amman Jordan --the road they came in on. We are looking at U.N. flights, Air Serve (An NGO that uses eighteen-seat planes to fly NGOs safely in and out of "Hot Zones", and a normal Air Jordanian plane. There are few vacant seats and we don't know when we can safely get them out.

At the moment our apartment is relatively safe, but that could all change if excessive force is used to attempt to arrest a Shia Sheikh named "Sader" who has taken refuge in one of the two holiest shrines for Shia --the one in Najaf (the other is in Karbala). In the past few days there were just over 100,000 pilgrims there from Iraq, Iran and elsewhere celebrating the 40-days-after-the-death-of -Hussien --an important Shia martyr. The Americans have said they will wait until the end of the celebrations before they try to arrest him. If they use the same kind of excessive force as they have used in Faluja these last days it could get real bad. It is bad now. In their efforts to capture and bring to justice the  that killed and mutilated five American contractors in Faluja they have killed over 450 Falujans, many of them women and children. Many Iraqis are extremely angry at this massacre. They are making enemies at an exponential rate! If they use similar tasks in Najaf which is part of the majority Shia community (60 percent of Iraq's population) as they just did in Faluja (part of the other largest Sunni majority) there will be hell to pay.

The Shia Sheik Sadre has a very small following, and nost Shias have been patient and non-violent up until now. While Shia cleric with the greatest following --Ayatollah Sistani-- continues to be a voice of reason and a moderate, attacks on or in one of the holiest cities to Shi'as around the world could ignite dramatically increase the anger and reprisals. I shudder to think.

The vast majority of Iraqis continue to be friendly and hospitable, but their fear is also palpable. They don't know what is going to happen, and since foreigners are like to be soft targets our presence may place them, our friends and translators in danger. If the killing of five Americans can justify the slaughter of 450 people in Faluja something happening to one of us might also be used as an excuse for such reprisals.

The team is also accessing whether our presence here will reduce or increase violence. We want to bear testimony to the vast majority who do not hate Americans (or Canadians that look like Americans) and no give too much power to those few who engage in terrorist activities, but we don't want to endanger anyone by our presence. If we cannot find a way to deter American aggression and over-reaction we may decide to leave rather than potentially provide them with another excuse that will justify the deaths of hundreds of Iraqi men women and children in collateral damage. The whole thing is escalating and our Iraqi friends and ourselves are becoming increasingly alarmed.

As I've said on previous occasions one American or Canadian life is worth no less or no more than an Iraqi life. If this simple Truth could be learned we could prevent so much bloodshed!

Peace
Stewart


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Stewart Vriesinga
Jan - Aug 2004
Back in Iraq
with Christian Peacemaker Teams www.cpt.org/