Human Shields

There is a new and puzzling phenomenon in the international scene which creates a headache for countries fighting wars and a lifeline of hope for people in conflict areas. Some crazy Westerners go to places like Iraq and Palestine, Congo and Rwanda and offer themselves as human shields to protect people and places at risk.

Norman Kember was called up to military service in his home in Britain at 18 back in the 1940’s and found himself wrestling with his conscience. He did not want to help any war, he did not want to fight. He has always been a peace-lover. So he joined a hospital staff where he could save lives not end them. Now at 74, this retired professor of medical physics at St Bartholomew’s hospital, has just been taken hostage by an Iraqi group calling themselves The Swords of Righteousness Brigade.

He is one of 4 hostages taken who have been working with Christian Peace Teams, an international activist organisation who went to Iraq as human shields. What have they been doing?

They were in Iraq before it got bombed assisting the UN weapons inspectors as a way to prevent war from coming. They also exposed to the world the deprivations and suffering caused by the UN sanctions imposed on Iraq. Then when the “Shock and Awe” bombing began, Kember and the team acted as human shields, standing in front of water supplies, hospitals and electrical plants to deter the bombers. After the bombing stopped they helped clean up the unexploded ordnances found throughout the country, then began to take an interest in Iraqi detainees. They became aware of abuses in the prisons long before the media highlighted Abu Ghraib and began a program with churches in Western countries called Adopt-a-Detainee, which was a letter-writing program seeking release of unjustly-held Iraqi suspects.

Not wishing to create risk for themselves or the US army, they greatly reduced their physical presence on the streets of Iraq when a rash of Western hostages began to be taken. In the last year they have been focusing on the training of Muslim peace teams who can negotiate between warring parties and settle disputes without violence.

There has been an outcry around the world speaking up for this benign British Baptist Professor Norman Kember and his three colleagues – not just from his church friends.

The Muslim Council of Britain issued a statement that said, “Norman Kember is a man who cares deeply for the people of Iraq and his kidnap and continued detention are completely unjustifiable. Our faith of Islam holds in great esteem the peaceful bridge-building work that Mr Kember was involved in,”

Over 100 Palestinians in the Hebron region marched from the school to the clinic in At-Tuwani, holding photos of the CPTers and banners. The banners read, “CPTers sacrifice their blood to help us and to help the world know about our struggles. The people, women and children of At-Tuwani ask for the captors to let the CPT free.” They told of how CPT people had come to live in their towns and act as human shields walking the children to and from school every day because the Israeli soldiers and extremist settlers would not harm them when the Westerners were present. They also filmed acts of violence and looting at great risk to their lives which could be used as evidence in efforts to restore justice.

This makes me think about Jesus. He was a human shield. He, God’s Son, became one of us to share in all our sufferings and struggles. God was amongst us, and eventually by his death shielded us from ever needing to be punished for our sins.

Furthermore, the sorts of activities that Kember and the CPT engage in sound like things which Jesus would approve. He was involved in sticking up for the defenceless and getting in the way of powerful interests; he came to bring peace and non-violence, and was courageous in his commitment to solidarity with and liberation for the outcasts, the sick and the poor.

Perhaps this new phenomenon of human shields is a good way of picturing why Jesus, the Son of God, lived and died among humanity. He came to where the people were, ordinary people, with mangers, and sheep to watch, and inns to keep, and lived among them with all the grace, strength and compassion that lift and inspire ordinary people struggling to survive in a dog-eat-dog world. And he gave his life to save them from the violence, sinfulness, ugliness and destruction that wreck human existence. To obtain this salvation though requires more than a hasty prayer or a ‘hedge-my-bets’ token commitment. I think the deal has always been ‘Go and do likewise.’.

Articles from Geoff Leslie’s weekly column can be found on the Internet at http://www.ruralministry.org

December 2005