Killing of Christian peacemaker in Iraq
(c) CPT photo
"Tom Fox was in Iraq as a religious peacemaker so that those who use violence to pursue their own plans for that much-troubled nation might see that this is no way toward peace," Peter Weiderud, director of the World Council of Churches' Commission of the Churches for International Affairs (WCC/CCIA), said in Geneva today.
The body of Tom Fox, one of a four-person Christian Peacemaker Team in Iraq, was found in Baghdad on 10 March; his three co-workers are still being held captive. The four peacemakers were kidnapped in early December 2005; at that time the WCC appealed to the government of Iraq to undertake whatever steps were necessary to secure their safe release.
"[Fox] was in Iraq to show that all people have something of God in them," Weiderud observed. "Now his blood has been shed by people using violence in just that way--a tragedy for him, his loved ones, for all who know of the work of the Christian Peacemaker Teams. Neither the people of Iraq nor the cause of peace are served by this death. It is only another of the many tragic daily reminders of the killings inflicted there on many sides.
"His religious community, the Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers), is part of the worldwide ecumenical fellowship. We mourn his death as a family. Churches in the region have spoken up for why the Christian Peacemaker Teams are there. We trust and pray that the clear and unambiguous commitment to preserving life and peace will help his captors to save the lives of his three co-workers - Harmeet Singh Sooden, James Looney and Norman Kember - and lead to their prompt release."
