DownloadArticles : Kathleen Kern/Christian Peacemaker Teams
June 8 issue
-
Kern
Cambodia’s genocide trial
A friend of mine once visited the genocide museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He said the piles of skulls used most often to depict visually what happened in the 1970s did not affect him as much as the pictures on the wall — pictures of Cambodians with numbers on their chests and facial expressions that showed they knew they were about to die.
More than 30 years later, these victims are finally going to get their day in court at a war crimes tribunal that has begun near Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Called the “Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia,” it is a joint effort of the United Nations and the government of Cambodia.
May 11 issue
-
CPT won’t abandon Kurds
The Kurds, like other ethnic minorities in modern nation-states, are usually noticed only when tragedy befalls them, and often not even then.
April 13 issue
-
Hope for restorative justice?
In the last week of March, a Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzón, began criminal proceedings against six Bush administration officials for authorizing torture against detainees in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay.
March 9 issue
-
Making friends with Tamar
On Election Day in Israel, schools are closed. So as we toured the Kerem Shalom kibbutz, which borders Gaza and Egypt, a little girl followed us. She wore an oversized turquoise sweatshirt and struggled to ride a bike too big for her.
Feb. 9 issue
-
Picture of suffering in Gaza
Rabbi Irving Greenberg wrote the following rule for discourse on the Holocaust: “No statement, theological or otherwise, should be made that would not be credible in the presence of the burning children.” A picture I saw this week of a baby’s corpse burned from bombs Israel dropped on Gaza brought that phrase to mind.
Jan. 12 issue
-
Faithful in the Holy Land
One of my most meaningful Christmases happened in 2000. The violence of the three-month-old intifada had been consuming Palestinian and Israeli lives and destroying Palestinian homes and neighborhoods.
Dec. 8, 2008 issue
-
Father Rafael, security risk
When Father Rafael Gallego asked the Colombian army not to camp next to the church and high school in Tiquisio — because it put students, church members and other neighbors at risk of guerrilla attack — the army refused.
Nov. 10, 2008 issue
-
Engraved on God’s hands
Last month I spent 10 days creating an index for the new 620-page Christian Peacemaker Teams history, In Harm’s Way (Cascade Books 2008) and was struck by the dozens of people whose names appear only once in the book.
Oct. 13, 2008 issue
-
On freedom — and desks
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is one of last year’s U.S. presidential candidates I’d most like to meet. The way he integrates what appears to be a sincere, genuine faith into his political life interests me.
Sept. 8, 2008 issue
-
Lost in translation and fear
In 1956, Nikita Khrushchev’s statement, “We will bury you,” impressed upon Americans the threat that the Soviet Union represented. Later, Russian language experts noted that the phrase could also mean, “We will outlast you.”
