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For Immediate Release April 1, 2003

Montreal peace activists leave Baghdad, arrive safely in Jordan

AMMAN, JORDAN -- Two Montreal peace activists with the Iraq Peace Team left Baghdad early this morning and crossed the border into Jordan safely. They are due to arrive in Amman, Jordan by evening local time.

Their road from Baghdad to Amman was fraught with danger. Reuters reported this morning that two buses of peace activists travelling from Jordan into Iraq were attacked by U.S. warplanes. The wounded were being treated in a hospital near the Jordanian border. Reports of Iraqi civilians being attacked by U.S. forces as they flee Baghdad are starting to emerge. Iraq Peace Team members who made the journey from Baghdad to Amman one day earlier had a car accident, and were rescued and treated by Iraqi civilians, before arriving in Jordan.

Montrealers Lisa Ndejuru and Zehira Houfani were in Baghdad before the U.S./British invasion began. They experienced the bombings, and are eyewitnesses to the devastation that is taking place in the city. After the bombing campaign started, their daily routine consisted of visits to hospitals, home visits, and tours of bombing sites. They were sending frequent reports back to Canada by email before U.S. forces destroyed communications facilities in Baghdad last Thursday, effectively cutting off their links to the outside world.

The two peace activists were in Baghdad as members of the Iraq Peace Team, an initiative of the Chicago-based Voices in the Wilderness. Their objective in staying in Baghdad during the war was to show solidarity with the people of Iraq and bear witness to the impact of the war on people there. A third Quebec member of the team, Robert Turcotte, remains in Baghdad to continue this work, together with eleven other members of the Iraq Peace Team.

The two Montrealers now plan to share the stories of what they have witnessed in Baghdad and otherwise continue their work against the war. They are available in Amman for interviews, along with other members of the Iraq Peace Team and Christian Peacemakers Team.