Freedom for our brothers from CPT, peace fighters in Iraq

by Peasant Association of Cimitarra River Valley
December 2nd, 2005

"In Allah's benevolent, compassionate name, you have your Faith, I have mine" The Qur'an

Our brothers and companions Norman Kember, Briton 74-year-old, the American 54-year-old Tom Fox, and the Canadians 41-year-old James Loney, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) were retained unjustly on Saturday, the 26th of November by the "Brigade of the Swords of the Righteousness".

We know CPT from 2001, they have walked close to us, exposing their lives, along the paths of pain and injustice so common in Colombia. They have seen with us the way our rights are violated, but also how we fight for them. They have objected with us to the oppression that comes from the imperial power of the United States. They are courageous and worthy representatives of the peoples of Great Britain, The United States and Canada.

CPT is an organization that fights around the world against the military interventions, against the occupations disguised as democracy, so it is possible watching them trying to demolish the "Wall of Shame" in Palestine, or defending the humanity of the "illegal" immigrants in the Brave Rio, between Mexico and the United States, or sailing along the rivers and marshes of Magdalena Medio, in the middle of our colombian war, saving the peasants from uncertainty and paramilitarism.

We are sure that CPT presence in Iraq, as they does in Colombia, obeys to a sense of solidarity and internationalism, known that CPT is in opposition to the illegal occupation and that they share the pain of the tortured Iraqi people.

We, an organization of Colombian peasants, share the heroic resistance and the glorious struggle of the Iraqi people in opposition to the invader, the same struggle that fulfils the Colombian people and many other peoples of the world in opposition to the violence and the imperial plunder.

Because of it we do not understand the unjust retention and so we request on behalf of our colombian peasant men and women, in God's name and Allah's name, that our brothers of CPT should be realeased immediately. We are sure that it will be so.