Norman Kember - Hostage in Iraq

First published in 2007 by

Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd

1 Spencer Court

140142 Wandsworth High Street

London SW18 4JJ

2007 Norman Kember

The right of Norman Kember to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Designed by Sandie Boccacci

Digital Edition converted and formatted by Andrews UK Ltd 2010

Dedication

To all those who supported my wife, Pat, during those distressing months.

A Vulnerable Man

A Song for Norman

Hes far from being a young man, his muscles are not strong,

so call him old and feeble you wont be too far wrong.

But theres a spirit in him thats sane and strong and sure:

the muscle or the spirit say, which should count for more?

When all our wealth and weapons have done the most they can,

how will they measure up to a vulnerable man?

The young men in their thousands, with weapons in their hands,

theyre burning to bring freedom to those in foreign lands.

But theres a weakness in them that cripples each brave deed:

theyre trained and honed for battle its peace that people need.

When all their wealth and weapons have done the most they can,

they still cant measure up to a vulnerable man.

The weary, battered people, worn out with strife and pain,

are desperately seeking to live their lives again.

But do they need the young men with death at their command,

or someone with a sharp wit and eyes that understand?

When all their wealth and weapons have done the most they can,

the people need the soul of a vulnerable man.

You leaders and you fighters, when will you comprehend

that any fool can break things a wise man learns to mend?

And Jesus knew the answer, and Gandhi knew it too,

and still it lies, deep down, in the likes of me and you.

When all our wealth and weapons have done the most they can,

we still wont have the power of a vulnerable man:

yes, when all our wealth and weapons have done the most they can,

we find we need the soul of a vulnerable man.

Sue Gilmurray

The Anglican Pacifist Fellowship

31st March 2006

Introduction

This book is a personal account of my experiences as a delegate with the Christian Peacemaker Teams to Iraq in November 2005 and my days spent as a kidnap victim until March 2006. The bulk of the writing is based on my memory and I take responsibility for any errors. As an aide-mmoire, I have the transcript of my debriefing to the police which was made within a month of arriving back in England.

Other sources include three accounts that I wrote in Baghdad on the CPT computer before the kidnap and some of the writing from my captivity notebook. Unfortunately the original notebook in which I described our experiences in Jordan and Baghdad at the beginning of our trip was taken by our captors, as was my camera with some of my photographs of Baghdad.

James Loney wrote extensive notes about our captivity in his notebook, and I hope that he will write a more accurate account of our experiences than you will read here. I have relied on his outline of events to check some dates and for information concerning the series of fictions we were told by our captors about release.

In the section on events at home during our captivity, I have relied on the sources which I have acknowledged in that chapter. The minister of my church, the Revd Robert Gardiner, contributed to that chapter and I have also consulted with family and my many friends in Christian peace organisations. I have not given credit to the full cast of supporters. For this I apologise.

By including some account of the intense media interest in our homecoming I quickly discovered that a whole book could be written about those events.

There are so many people who should be thanked first and foremost, my wife Pat, who paid so dearly for accepting my decision to go to Iraq, then Jim and Harmeet for putting up with me so patiently over those three-and-a-half months. There are a host of people, many of them unknown to me personally, who supported my wife, Pat, with visits, letters, cards and flowers. A number of others who played a part in the story are written into the text and I hope will accept that mention as a thank you.

I am grateful to Teresa de Bertodano who oversaw my attempts to transform a scientific report into a literary account without losing my voice, and all the members of DLT team who worked so enthusiastically to bring this book to publication.

Kidnap

Saturday 26 November

The van door closes and we are kidnapped. Just like that, with the precision of a generals finger snap.

James Loney

We plunged into a Baghdad souk, a wonderful confusion of all manner of goods and humanity. Drive down a wide road and suddenly you are in it barrows loaded with old clothes, new clothes (all sizes, all ages, both sexes), carpets, curtains, bales of material. Our driver eased the car through the crowds and people reluctantly stepped aside.

Our people carrier came to rest in the hardware section sanitary ware, paints, tiles, furniture, a man carving a door, motor parts (I saw a bath used to test tyres for leaks), lights, electrical goods. Leaving the driver in the vehicle, five of us continued on foot; the interpreter, myself and the other two members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams delegation; our leader, James Loney, coordinator of CPT in Canada, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, an engineer in his early thirties, also a Canadian citizen. The final member of the group was an American, Tom Fox of the resident CPT Team in Baghdad.

We worked our way back to the main souk, and as our tall interpreter strode to our destination we struggled to keep up with him, fearful of getting lost as we squeezed past stalls and stallholders and on into the square in front of the Kadhimain Mosque, the Shia mosque. To the left was a cave-like complex of jewellers shops; to the right were fruit stalls. On we went down an ancient narrow passage which led to the house of the Shia Imam.

We three delegates had a morning appointment with the Imam, Sayyid Ali, and Tom Fox was accompanying us. The Imams house had two well-armed guards outside and we had to wait twenty minutes for our appointment. This time we spent talking to the guards about their work in Baghdad one of them had a working knowledge of English. I also explored the dingy alleyways immediately around the house and took a few photographs of the overhanging wooden galleries.

Eventually we were invited into the house and entered a carpeted anteroom where people were sitting on the floor. I eased myself down, remembering to tuck my feet well in (in the Middle East it is considered the height of bad manners to point the soles of the feet at another). Stage three took us into the presence of a frail man dressed in black the Imam. This time there were seats around the walls. We were offered tea in small glasses, into which sugar was spooned to about one third of the volume and then the liquid poured on top.

Our interpreter expressed our thanks for the audience. We put questions through him and began to ask about the present situation in Iraq. Hardly had we begun when the door opened and another man appeared. He was apparently a political advisor and, speaking English, took over the meeting. He launched into a long political speech. I took brief records but my notebook disappeared in the kidnap and I fear that the mans tirade was so important that I have no memory of it! He appeared to blame the Sunnis for everything (Shias and Sunnis trace the divisions between them back 1,400 years to the succession from the Prophet Muhammad). From time to time a third man would sidle into the room and present a note or a document. The Imam would sign, return the document and the man would disappear through a door behind the Imams seat. We learned later that the documents were marriage licences. After an hour and halfs tirade we managed to get away. We left via the ancient narrow passage and worked our way back through the souk to the parked vehicle and our driver.