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March 23, 2006
CPT Hostages Freed
The surviving Christian Peacemaker hostages have been freed. The CPT statement celebrating their release doesn't forget what it's all about:
During these past months, we have tasted of the pain that has been the daily bread of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Why have our loved ones been taken? Where are they being held? Under what conditions? How are they? Will they be released? When?
Posted by zeynep at March 23, 2006 07:08 PM
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Family kept ex-hostage's sexual orientation secret
Last Updated Mon, 27 Mar 2006 22:58:44 EST
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/03/27/newloney-home060327.html
Friends and family of former Canadian hostage James Loney kept his homosexuality secret during his captivity to protect his security, says a co-director of Christian Peacemaker Teams.
"It's a sad reality around the whole world today that gays and lesbians are more vulnerable to violence than straight people," said Doug Pritchard.
"And we were concerned in Jim's current vulnerable state of captivity that if that was more widely known, that he could be more vulnerable."
Loney, 41, and two CPT colleagues – Canadian Harmeet Singh Sooden and Briton Norman Kember – were rescued on March 23, four months after being taken hostage in Baghdad by a little-known Iraqi group.
A fourth abducted colleague, 54-year-old American Tom Fox, was shot to death earlier this month.
Loney's partner, Dan Hunt, chose to remain silent from the outset of the hostage-taking. Loney first mentioned his partner after he arrived in Canada on Sunday.
"I'm going to disappear for a little while into a different kind of abyss – an abyss of love," Loney said at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. "I need some time to get reacquainted with my partner Dan."
Hunt made his first public appearance when he greeted his partner Sunday.
Sooden also kept a secret until his release, that he once worked in the defence industry, because of fears for his safety.
The 33-year-old arrived Monday in Auckland, N.Z., where his family lives. A former student at McGill University in Montreal, Sooden is now attending college in New Zealand.
Loney was to travel this week to Sault Ste. Marie, where his parents live. Red ribbons and welcome-home signs have already been posted in the northern Ontario city, from well before the city limits to the door of his parents' home.
Kember, 74, arrived in London on Saturday and was reunited with his wife, Pat.
Posted by: Lani at March 29, 2006 03:07 AM