Posted on December 23, 2008 - by Andy McMahon

An Open Letter to President Elect Barack Obama

This is an open letter I found on Jesus Manifesto.  I am going to print this up and send it.. and  would ask you to do the same thing.. Even repost it on your own blog if you can.  It’s a pretty huge deal.  Here is the exact copy and paste from Jesus Manifesto

“Dear friends,

Please distribute this open letter to friends, government officials, and media for us. We have sent it to two blog posting sites for Obama, but we also found a mailing address for him. It would be fine to have a flurry of people sending this letter to him at

President Elect Barack Obama

PO Box 802799

Chicago, IL 60680-2799

Thanks, the CPT Iraq team

* * *

Dear Senator Obama, President Elect of the United States,

Since 2007 the US military has provided military intelligence and opened Iraqi air space to Turkish forces along the northern border of the Kurdish Regional Governorate for operations against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party). Because of these military incursions, thousands of civilian villagers have been displaced, many killed or wounded, and a great many endure inadequate and deplorable living situations.

Members of our organization, Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), an NGO with offices based in Chicago and Toronto, have been living and working in the Kurdish North of Iraq for over two years, and for four years before that, in Baghdad. We have had regular contact with the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and local Kurdish NGOs that have assisted these Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

Our members have visited IDP tent camps and witnessed the hardships of those living there as well as visited mayors and security personnel of communities to which thousands of men, women and children have fled for refuge. In some areas we have been able to visit the remains of Muslim and Christian villages destroyed by the bombing and talk to villagers who still live there or come and go to care for crops or animals under the threat of random attacks. We have interviewed a twenty-seven-year old woman who lost her leg, families of persons who were killed in these bombings by Turkish military, and a man whose two brothers were taken from their villages and tortured by Turkish soldiers.

Testimonies of villagers and government officials have confirmed the destruction of civilian infrastructure such as homes, schools, mosques, churches, and hospitals. Turkish bombing has killed sheep and cows?animals many families depend on for their livelihood. The Turkish military has bombed bridges and planted landmines?as well as internationally prohibited weapons as cluster bombs?to prevent human movement in areas where civilians live. Explosions from bombs and rockets (some rockets and shelling also from the Iranian Military along the Iranian border) continue in villages still inhabited and are audible from some areas where IDPs now live.

These things have been verified by the 2008 KRG government report of the fact-finding committee mandated by the Council of Representatives Presidency Board. We also saw five of the numerous Turkish Military bases positioned within Iraqi territory, as far away from the Turkish border as eighteen miles. According to Kurdish officials, Turkey established these bases under an agreement between Turkey and KRG officials in 1996 during the Kurdish civil war, but refused to leave years ago when the agreement expired.

According to villagers still living in areas currently being bombed, and Iraqi Kurdish security officials, Turkish military at these bases watch their movement, strike during the time of planting and harvesting, anytime they observe displaced villagers returning to their homes, or if there is movement around their villages at night, and do not let Kurdish residents use their land adjoining the bases or hunt on the mountains nearby. They experience the Turkish presence as an oppressive occupation. They say Iraqi Kurdish officials have asked the Turkish military at the bases to leave, but feel helpless in enforcing this. For these reasons the people are afraid of the impending agreement between the Iraqi Central Government and Turkey.

According to an official from the Turkish foreign ministry (to Hurriyet daily news source on 18 November, 2008) describing the effects of this agreement, “If an operation which is deemed as crucial for Turkey is needed, then Turkey can present it as a ‘fait accompli.’” They see this as allowing Turkey to increase its occupation of the northern areas of Iraq, a fear put into perspective by the far more intense nature of Turkish military aggression there in the 1990’s.

As we talk to Kurdish people, we hear a call for the United States to abide by international law and the Fourth Geneva Agreements, standards to which it holds other countries: not to kill or injure civilians, and that an occupying power is responsible to protect and care for the civilians who are under its control.

On a larger scale, CPT has observed a dramatic change in the Kurdish population from unapologetic support for the U.S. military presence in Iraq to anger at the way in which the United States has treated one of its most loyal allies in the Middle East. Kurdish people, who have experienced the Anfal genocide under the Saddam Hussein regime now fear U.S. support will encourage Turkey to move even more aggressively against Kurdistan.

Therefore, we urge you to:

1. Reverse U.S. policies that aid Turkey’s attacks on Kurdish Iraqi civilian populations and put diplomatic pressure on Turkey to pursue diplomatic and peaceful solutions to the PKK/Turkey disputes.

2. Refuse to support new agreements that would expand the rights of Turkey’s military to send more troops or establish more bases northern Iraq and put pressure on Turkey to remove existing bases.

We would also invite you to come here and visit some of these villages and IDP camps and talk with the people. They are very welcoming and hospitable. We would be glad to introduce you to them and be of what assistance we can.

Sincerely,

Peggy Gish, Craig A. Kite, Chichun Yuan, Bob Holmes, Anne Montgomery, John Lynes

CPT

Suleimaniya, Iraq”

Do this.