Miseries of the Besieged City

An Invitation to Prayer
The Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) in Baghdad, Iraq invites you to join with us every Tuesday for a day of prayer, fasting and action that will continue until Easter week. Participate as you are led either by fasting (the team will do a bread and water fast) and/or joining us for a time of prayer. At 9AM Eastern Standard Time (1400GMT) the team will gather for an hour of focused prayer. You are invited to join for as much time as you can. Please also note the Action Steps connected with each week’s sacred passage. The CPT Iraq team asks that you take the suggested action between Tuesday and Thursday so that we can be working together.

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Tuesday, March 8, 2005
Day of Prayer, Fasting and Action: Miseries of the Besieged City

(Lamentations 4:8,17-18)

“Now their appearance is blacker than soot,
they are unrecognized on the street;
their skin shrinks on their bones, as dry as wood.”

“Our eyes ever wasted away,
looking in vain for aid;
from our watchtower we watched
for a nation that could not save us.”

“Men dogged our steps
so that we could not walk in our streets;
our end drew near, and came;
our time had expired.”

“Yes, I saw women and children dead in the streets of Fallujah. Some were shot, and some had been killed by bombs,” a young resident of Fallujah told members of CPT. He himself had been beaten, interrogated, and detained for 35 days.

These horrors took place just a few months ago, as the U.S. army assaulted the Iraqi city with overwhelming force meant to quell the resistance.

“Please, tell U.S. military families what their children are being ordered to do,” the soft-spoken young Iraqi said.

CPTers in Iraq now hear from Iraqis, read in isolated news reports, and learn from their own travel experience that the U.S. military has launched a new wave of assaults west of Fallujah. The raids are part of a maneuver called “Operation Euphrates.” As of this March 1, 2005 writing, reports indicate that soldiers have surrounded and entered multiple villages and that the city of Ramadi is currently under siege. More than one million civilians, including women and children, are at risk.

However, we are experiencing a near total media blackout of these events.

ACTION STEPS:

1) Please call your local newspaper, radio station and television station to request information about these events.

2) Contact your elected officials and express your concern that the horrors of Fallujah are being repeated.