LOUISVILLE — The Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) in Baghdad is still awaiting word about four of its members who were kidnapped and threatened with execution nearly four weeks ago.

     The release of those four men is the focus of CPT’s work.

     “We have a small team there, and, under the circumstances, they’re working to do what they can for the release of our four people,” said William Payne, a spokesperson for the CPT-Toronto offices and a longtime friend of one of the missing men, James Loney, 41, a Canadian.

     “We’re hoping they’ll be released soon so that our team can get back … to the work that we’re there to do.”

     CPT has been documenting abuse of Iraqi detainees by the U.S. military and helping families of detainees get information about missing relatives.

     The CPT-Iraq team has also collaborated with Iraqi human rights organizations in non-violent actions in Baghdad, Fallujah, Kerbala and Balad. It also developed a letter-writing campaign in the U.S. on behalf of specific detainees.

     A previously unknown insurgency group calling itself the “Swords of Justice Brigade” apparently kidnapped four CPT’ers during a carjacking in Baghdad and accused them of spying. Missing are American Tom Fox, 54, Briton Norman Kember, 74, and Canadians Loney and Harmeet Sooden, 32.

     The brigade threatened to kill the four men if the U.S. government did not release all Iraqi detainees by Dec. 10 – but the deadline passed without further word from the brigade.

     On Dec. 17, CPT’s Baghdad team issued a letter to their missing colleagues in both English and Arabic. It reads:

     “Harmeet, Jim, Norman and Tom, We are still longing to see your faces. So many people continue to let us know that they are thinking of you and praying for you. As Christmas approaches, we continue to hope that you will be able to join us and your families for the celebrations. Anita (Presbyterian Anita David of Chicago is a member of the Baghdad CPT team) has written her aunt for the best turkey dressing recipe known to the world. We continue to stay in touch with your families. Your friends in Iraq ask about you all the time. We don’t know how much you get outside, but the weather is nice here in Baghdad. We hope to see you soon. With much love, your Teammates in Baghdad.”

     The team hasn’t ceased its advocacy on behalf of Iraqis here, however. Even if it isn’t as visible on the streets of Baghdad as before the kidnappings.

     CPT has been careful to say in interviews that kidnapping in Iraq has affected more Iraqis than foreigners and blame the lack of security to the ongoing military occupation. Many Iraqis are kidnapped for ransom.

     It has also asked its constituents in the U.S. to urge President George W. Bush to withdraw troops and military bases and to stop bombings and arbitrary detentions.

     Quaker Maxine Nash of Richmond, IN, another member of the Baghdad team, issued an open letter to Bush after his Sunday night address to the U.S. public. Although she had no electricity to watch the broadcast, Nash said that she read the president’s comments on the Internet.

     She respectfully disagreed with the president’s argument that pulling out of Iraq signals to the world that “America cannot be trusted to keep its word.”

     “In conversations with my Iraqi friends, it is already apparent that America has not kept its word. Promises of a better life without a cruel dictator, improved living conditions, and a more stable nation have not materialized,” she wrote in the letter. “In fact, they tell me this is the worst they have ever seen here in living memory. They have lost faith in anything said by the American government.

     “Beginning the removal of troops would indicate that we do have their interests at heart instead of our own and that we can be trusted to do what is right.”

     Nash also wrote that Iraqis say a U.S. withdrawal would not embolden the terrorist movement, as feared. “Again,” she wrote, “my friends here tell me that they believe quite firmly that the violence would lessen if there were not the continuing provocative presence of foreign forces on their soil.”

     Payne helped establish Toronto’s Catholic Worker House with Loney and says the missing man’s life is one of prayer and commitment to peace and justice work.

     “I hope they’re home tomorrow,” he said of the kidnapped men. “This is a time of waiting without a lot to go on.”

     CPT’s Baghdad team drafted a statement of conscience before the hostages disappeared. It asked that no force be used to secure their release should a kidnapping occur.