The Iraq Peace Team is a project of Voices in the Wilderness which has led over 45 delegations to Iraq. In May, 2002 Kathy Kelly, a Voices in the Wilderness co-founder, sent a proposal to Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz:
As leaders in the United States speak openly of preparations to massively assault
Iraq, we remain grateful for the kindly embraces with which our many delegations
have been met by ordinary Iraqi people. Now we feel renewed responsibility to
accompany Iraqi children and families, as much as possible, in the event that
the US should carry through with threats to attack Iraq.
I’m writing to you today with a proposal for another peacemaking effort
which Voices in the Wilderness wishes to organize: we propose formation of an
“Iraq Peace Team,” that would bring people from the US and other countries
together, in Iraq, well in advance of a US attack. The Iraq Peace Team would
be organized by members of our campaign who’ve visited Iraq numerous times.
Participants would be required to undertake serious preparation in advance so
that all involved would be ready:
to cooperate with guidelines requiring all participants make a commitment to
nonviolent discipline in word and action…
to arrive in Iraq prepared for opportunities to take up residence in Baghdad
and other cities in Iraq–hold vigils, should bombing raids begin, at places
where ordinary Iraqi people go... be present at facilities upon which Iraqi
people depend for maintenance of their infrastructures...travel on roads between
cities and towns, in hopes of safeguarding travel for Iraqi civilians.
Rather than take sides in a military confrontation, we would aim to make the
strong moral statement that ordinary human beings should not be sacrificed for
any government’s military goals and purposes.