wfn.org | United Methodist, peace group, leave Iraq

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

April 2, 2003	News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212)870-38037New York
10-21-71BI{201}

NOTE: For related coverage, see UMNS #196.

By United Methodist News Service

The United Methodist making a witness for peace in Baghdad has left Iraq
along with other members of the Christian Peacemakers Teams and Iraq Peace
Team.

Scott Kerr, 27, a member of First United Methodist Church in Downers Grove,
Ill., and the other team members managed to travel safely from the Iraqi
capital to the Iraq-Jordan border, and they crossed into Jordan on April 1.

Claire Evans, personnel and delegation coordinator for CPT, said the group
had decided to leave because the increasing security restrictions placed upon
them by the Iraqi government made it difficult to move around independently.

CPT, which was working in Iraq with the Voices in the Wilderness
organization, places "violence-reduction" teams in conflict areas around the
world. The goal in Iraq was to "accompany and befriend civilians in the event
of escalating violence," the team said in a March 17 statement.

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United Methodist News Service
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