A PEACE group blamed the US and Britain yesterday for the abduction of four activists shown in an insurgent video, saying the kidnapping was the direct result of the occupation of Iraq. Christian Peacemaker Teams, a group that has had activists in Iraq since October 2002, said it was saddened by the video tape of their workers. It listed the names of those abducted as Tom Fox, 54, of Clearbrook, Virginia; Norman Kember, 74, of London; James Loney, 41, of Toronto, Canada; and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, of Canada. "We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the US and UK governments due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people," the group said. "We are some of the few internationals left in Iraq who are telling the truth about what is happening to the Iraqi people."
On Tuesday, the Al-Jazeera satellite network broadcast video of the four men held by a previously unknown group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. The group claimed the activists were spies.
Mr Loney, a community worker, was leading the Christian group's delegation. Mr Fox, from Virginia, has two children, plays the bass clarinet and the recorder and worked as a professional grocer and at a Quaker youth camp, says the statement. It said Mr Sooden was studying for a master's degree in English literature at Auckland University, in New Zealand, while Professor Kember was a long-time peace activist who once fretted publicly that he was taking the easy way out by protesting in safety at home while British soldiers risked their lives in Iraq.
He and his wife of 45 years have two daughters and a grandson, the group said. Christian Peacemaker Teams emerged in 1989 out of the Mennonite Central Committee, the Quaker Friends Society and the Church of Brethren to send teams of Christians trained in techniques of non-violent action to conflicts around the world.