By Peggy Gish
August 22, 2004

Since returning to Iraq, I am frequently asked about what it is like for the Iraqi people now. While it’s easier to focus on the difficulties and crises they are experiencing, I also look for movements of hope.

On a day-to-day level, there are meager improvements in their standard of living and the increased availability of modern appliances and technology. Overshadowing any satisfaction about this, however, looms the lack of security and control Iraqis continue to feel over the circumstances of their lives and the future of their society.

Only 8-10 hours a day with electricity in a large city, during the extreme summer heat, was hard enough last summer, but resentment thrives a year later when there is little more. One man told me that now, since the war “we have a different kind a freedom, a freedom with misery.”

Recently the son of our neighbors was driving with his mother and sister when a car started following them. It passed in front and blocked their way. When they managed to turn around, men got out ofthe car with guns and shot at their car. Even though a tire went flat, the son kept driving, weaving through traffic and side streets until they got away. Other Iraqis have had members kidnapped for ransom money, and are terrified to leave their homes.

Shoot-outs between Cleric Muktada Al-Sadr’s Mehdi militia and the Multinational Forces in Iraq in Najaf and many other areas Iraq, have added to the crisis. Iraqis have warned us that if the Shrine of Imam Ali, the holiest site for the Shia Muslims, is attacked and damaged, violence could erupt all over Baghdad. Many say that this general uprising will continue to escalate, not subside. This has been a test of loyalties for hundreds of government workers and Iraqi soldiers who have chosen to resign in protest of the attacks by multinational forces or for Iraqi soldiers who have refused to fire on their own people.

Many other Iraqis have been working hard and taking risks to give creative organizational leadership. A member of a human rights organization in Karbala, that our peace team has worked with for the past year, has recently brought followers of Muktada Al-Sadr and Grand Ayatollah Sistani and other human rights workers together to carry out non-violent actions in Karbala and Najaf. Last Friday they vigiled, calling for peaceful resolution of the standoff in Najaf. All around Iraq, Christians and Muslim leaders are working together to try to bridge the divisions between their peoples. Some groups we have worked with want to learn more about establishing their own peace teams.

In any crisis, there is not only the potential for more chaos, destruction, and suffering, but also for rethinking loyalties and goals, and discovering a vision for working nonviolently for unity, renewal, healing. We act in hope that the latter will win out.

Christian Peacemaker Teams is an ecumenical violence-reduction program with roots in the historic peace churches. Teams of trained peace workers live in areas of lethal conflict around the world. CPT has been present in Iraq since October, 2002. To learn more about CPT, please visit www.cpt.org.
Photos of our projects may be viewed at www.cpt.org/gallery