Episcopal Press and News
Episcopalian Joins Peace Delegation to Iraq, Returns with Four Hostages
Episcopal News Service. November 8, 1990 [90291]
Jerry Hames
A interfaith peace and witness delegation, which included an Episcopal priest, has returned from Iraq with four hostages and a belief that dialogue and negotiation can avert a war that would engulf the Middle East.
The Rev. James Lewis, peace and justice officer for the Diocese of North Carolina, said at a press conference in New York, October 27, that the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), an interfaith pacifist organization that has responded to crises since it was founded during World War I, initiated the trip as the beginning of a process that could lead to a permanent peace presence by volunteers in the region.
Although many European and Scandinavian peace delegations have entered Iraq, the FOR delegation was the first U.S. group. Lewis said the organization hopes to send other teams to the region with badly needed medicine and food.
Other FOR delegates echoed the need for dialogue and negotiation.
"It is of utmost urgency that discussions begin at the highest levels of government to forestall a war that would not only be disastrous for those in the line of fire, but for the entire Mideast and indeed the world," said C. Douglas Hostetter, executive secretary of FOR, who led the visit.
"We heard them [the Iraqis] say: 'It's time to talk,'" said the Rev. Mary Jensen, a Lutheran pastor from California. "They said there must be no embargo on dialogue," she said.
The 18-member delegation visited Jordan and Iraq, speaking with government representatives, religious leaders, and 20 U.S. hostages. "Most of those we saw, while they are under great stress, are still hopeful and in good spirits," Jensen said.
Lewis was elated that the group was successful in gaining the release of four Americans, but said he was disappointed that he was not allowed to meet with the Rev. Michael Jones, a Church of England priest who is being held with his wife at a strategic military installation near Baghdad.
Jones and his wife were taken under guard to Iraq from Kuwait where he had served as chaplain. The couple, accompanied by heavy security, was seen on one occasion at a service at St. George's Anglican Church in Baghdad.
"We offered to be blindfolded if we could be taken to where Jones is being held, but this was not acceptable to the authorities," Lewis said. He added that former British Prime Minister Edward Heath, with whom he met in Baghdad, was also unable to speak with Jones or secure his release with the 70 to 80 other hostages he took back to Britain.
Hostetter said the delegation's visit was intended to avert war, break what he called "an embargo of silence," and provide direct humanitarian aid to detainees and Iraqis.
The FOR delegation took a ton of medical supplies and packets of letters to the hostages from their families. It also sought the release of the more seriously ill among the hostages. Two in the delegation, a Muslim and Roman Catholic Bishop Michael Kenney of Alaska, remained in Baghdad and eventually flew to Amman, Jordan, on November 3 with four men -- Michael Barmer, 49, of Alexandria, Louisiana; Randall Trinh, 49, of Hacienda Heights, California; Dr. Abdul Khanji, 50, a physician from Glencoe, Illinois; and Raymond Gales, a diplomat from the U.S. embassy in Kuwait.
U.S. diplomats in Baghdad said the four were selected for release because they were on an embassy list of older or sick men.