By Brian Buckley
Peace Between Peoples Delegation
Monday, April, 26, 2004

Dear friends,

The five members of the delegation, Peace Between Peoples, have arrived in Najaf, the holiest city of the Shiite religion that is in danger of being attacked by the US military. Should Najaf be attacked a full fledged war would erupt and followers who were formerly not conscripted would commit to battling American troops.

We drove from Kerbala yesterday and passed an Coalition outpost and noted a US military convoy. We were cordially detained by the Iraqi Police and accompanied to our contact’s office in Najaf thereafter. We were met by members of Ayatollah Sistani’s office and led through a labyrinth of narrow alleys, and around nooks, past houses built upon houses that seemed a thousand years old. We passed straight faced men with machine guns sitting on stools as we continued down the serpentine alleyway. A representative of Ayatollah Sistani’s, the revered leader of the Shia sect, office strode confidently and quickly around a corner flanked by bodyguards to meet us. He greeted us respectfully and sent for a local doctor to translate. Later as we sat together he expressed gratitude for our peace delegation and concern for our safety which he could not guarantee. Sistani is a moderate and does not have control all Shia followers. We do not expect guaranteed safety especially when they cannot guarantee their own. The meeting was brief and intense. Our contact connected us with local and regional media some of whom we since have met with.

Moqutada alSadr, the younger, less-respected but popular firebrand who is calling for true liberation and is a wanted man “captured or killed” by the US military for allegedly inciting violence, sent a representative from his office to our hotel to dialogue. He too expressed gratitude for our mission and warned of the danger present. He offered a car, bodyguards and anything else we needed but could not guarantee our safety in regard to what the US military posed. We respectfully declined and expressed we are not here to take sides but want to deliver a message from America that this war does not represent the entire country. We feel the need to persist in the American protest of this war. We feel the need to continue challenging US troop deployment and occupation. This meeting went on for longer and ended with a promise of several kilos of “good baklava.”

There is a large hospital close by in Najaf that has been occupied by US military and is no longer serving the population as a medical center. Patients are seeking medical attention from clinics in other parts of the city. We plan to introduce ourselves to them today and possibly set up a vigil there for the remainder of our stay.