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Correspondents' Journal

April 11, 2003

Currently, there are thirteen Iraq Peace Team personnel from Voices In The Wilderness still living in Baghdad. They had hoped to return to Amman last night, but were unable to travel. The situation on the road from Amman to Baghdad is quite dangerous right now, due to lawlessness and vigilante activity. The Voices team is staying at the Al Fanar Hotel, and are able to communicate because they have a satellite phone. Normal telephone communications have been destroyed by the bombing in Baghdad.

The Iraqi border post on the Jordanian border has been abandoned by Iraqi government officials, but yesterday, armed Iraqi paramilitary or vigilantes moved in and looted the building.

Jordanian officials closed the border crossing yesterday, since they felt it was unsafe for anyone to try to travel the road to Baghdad at this time.

We did get a call from the Voices team in Baghdad, and everyone is fine. The area where they are staying seems safe right now, so they are likely to wait for a few days before trying to come to Jordan, hoping that civil order will be restored.

In the meantime, we learned from Voices yesterday that the Al Kindi Hospital where they usually visit patients, has been looted and ransacked. The medical staff have fled, abandoning the patients. The situation is also desperate in several other hospitals in Baghdad, where water and electricity have been cut off.

Photos and text: Doug Hostetter

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