Feb. 25 - March 7
by Sheila Provencher
Christian Peacemaker Teams
Baghdad, Iraq

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for all of the personal emails and prayers you have sent. I am sorry I don’t respond — I have been traveling out side of the city a lot lately and have found it almost impossible to keep up. So I sit on the roof for a bit every night and envision all of you all around the world, and pray for all our needs.

Many of you have been involved in the Fast for Justice and Healing in Iraq, and have taken part in the letter-writing campaign asking for justice and human rights for security detainees in Iraq. Thank you! CPT asked me to keep a journal of our experience at the demonstrations in Baghdad and surrounding areas. Every day we meet such interesting people. I thought you might be interested in this. It’s a bit of limited window into CPT’s work, as it ONLY describes the demonstrations. But I will try to follow up with some more in-depth reflections on daily life in Iraq.

For now, here is the Fast for Justice and Healing journal. It will likely be sent to you in pieces, as it is too long to read all at once!

Thank you for your prayers . . . I will write again soon.

Much peace, Sheila

March 8 - March 16
by Sheila Provencher
Christian Peacemaker Teams
Baghdad, Iraq

Monday, March 8:

ABU HISHMA

The first “vigil on the road.” While Sheila and Stewart attended a meeting between local lawyers and military officials in nearby Balad, Peggy, Cliff, Le Anne, and Matthew went to the village of Abu Hishma, a razor-wire-surrounded village where some of the campaign’s detainees and families are from. It is a small village, and the team had no translator, so they went on somewhat of a wild goose chase at first, trying to get to the vigil site, a bomb crater in a farmer’s field. It was not to be! They did go to Fayel’s house — Fayel is the father of Qusay, who has been in prison for more than 4 months. Fayel welcomed everyone, gave them tea, and was delighted to receive the poster-sized picture of his son, which the team has held for days in Tahrir Square. He also indicated that he had seen Qusay’s picture (as part of the vigil) on Iranian TV — perhaps from the media coverage the vigil received on Feb. 26. This gave him great encouragement, as did the stories of people in North America and other countries who are fasting, praying, and letter-writing on Qusay’s behalf.

The team ended up traveling to the center of town, where they were joined by crowds of children and adults, chanting “La ilaha illa’Allah” (there is no God but God). Thus the vigil became an impromptu march toward the checkpoint entrance of the town. Towards the end, ICDC (Iraq Civil Defense Corps) officers stopped the march, but posed for pictures and pretty much joined the revelry in the ways they could!

March 18 - March 20
by Sheila Provencher
Christian Peacemaker Teams
Baghdad, Iraq

Thursday, March 18

SOLIDARITY WEEK

After last night’s terrible bombing, the day dawned sunny and warm, with a cool breeze. The bombing killed possibly 8 people, so we were more aware than usual of the risks of doing public witness. But today was a special day �- the day that many people from various human rights groups joined the Tahrir Square demonstration, and at the end, marched across Jumhuriyah Bridge to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Perhaps the most beautiful aspect of the day was the simple fact that our Iraqi colleagues did attend in full force, despite the vulnerability, and expressed with great strength and determination their hopes for a more just Iraq. Their energy carried the day -� we were grateful to be along for the ride.

(Solidarity Week is a series of events coordinated by a number of human rights groups, including the Organization for Human Rights in Iraq, the Iraqi National Society for Human Rights, the National Association for the Defense of Human Rights, International Occupation Watch, Peace Volunteers, and CPT. The detainee issue was the focus for today.)