"Sixteen years ago our families left our homes in Southeastern Anatolia Turkey because of violence against Kurds, and lived as displaced persons within our own country. Today we are in Iraq and still longing for a Kurdish homeland and for peace," one of the leaders of the Makhmour Refugee Camp told our CPT Iraq group. "In Turkey we were threatened if we continued to speak and teach the Kurdish language. We fled because they would have imprisoned and tortured us if we did not deny our cultural heritage.”

"We can't stay here!" the leader of the Zharawa displaced person tent camp in the Suleimaniya Governorate near the Iranian border told us. "There is bombing back in our villages (1 to 4 kilometres away) day and night. And we are afraid being here too. Last year bombs hit this area."

After the mayor of Pshdar told IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) that it was illegal for them to buy houses in town and that they should go home, the team prepared a letter to Mr. Bakhtiar Amin, a former Minister of Human Rights Iraq.

Dear Senator Obama, President Elect of the United States,

Since 2007 the US military has provided military intelligence and opened Iraqi air space to Turkish forces along the northern border of the Kurdish Regional Governorate for operations against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party). Because of these military incursions, thousands of civilian villagers have been displaced, many killed or wounded, and a great many endure inadequate and deplorable living situations.

“What are you doing here as Christians?” one man asked after we introduced ourselves as members of Christian Peacemaker Teams.  Three members of the Iraq team were leading a one-day nonviolence and reconciliation workshop in Suleimaniya for fifteen young adult leaders from the conservative Muslim city of Halubja.