Reverend John Mendez of Emmanuel Baptist Church recently visited Iraq.
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Winston-Salem Journal
Tue, March 11, 2003Iraq isn't a threat, minister says after mission Nation is 'beaten down to a pulp,' pastor says; clergy flew in as guests of Christian fellowshipBy John RaileyJOURNAL REPORTERThe Rev. John Mendez says he's haunted by what he saw on a peace mission to Iraq last week.He saw the burn marks left where more than 400 people died in a Baghdad bomb shelter in the Gulf War in 1991. He saw people weakened by the U.N. economic sanctions that have continued since the war."It ain't what we think," said Mendez, the pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church. "We have beaten that country down to a pulp. It isn't a threat to anybody."Mendez flew to Baghdad with eight other clergy as guests of the Middle East Council of Churches, a fellowship of Christians in the predominantly Muslim Middle East. His group was made up mostly of black ministers from Washington and New York who have corresponded with friends in the Middle East. A Muslim cleric from the United States was also part of the delegation.Most Iraqis welcomed his group, Mendez said."One little kid, though, he was shining my shoes, when he discovered I was an American. "He said, 'George Bush,' and spit on the ground. He was 8 years old," Mendez said.He said he tried to talk to the child, but got nowhere. "These kids tomorrow will remember what we did to them today," Mendez said.The group didn't see Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during its week there, Mendez said, but it did meet with other officials with the Iraqi government. The group gave those officials their position paper, which asks Iraq to embrace peace by disarming. Mendez said he can't say whether the country is disarming its chemical and biological weapons."That's why we're so adamant about the U.N. doing its work without interference or intervention,'' he said. "Let the U.N. tell us whether or not they're disarming."The Bush administration has repeatedly expressed skepticism about Iraq's promises that it is disarming. While Mendez and the rest of his group were in Iraq, President Bush edged the United States closer to war. Bush said Thursday night that the United States will drive Saddam from power if it comes to war in Iraq - with or without support from Germany, France and other United Nations allies opposed to the use of force.The U.N. Security Council may vote this week on a U.S.-sponsored resolution authorizing war against Iraq.Mendez said he's not holding out much hope that the group of ministers, which also met with U.S. officials before traveling to Iraq, would help prevent a war.But he said he and the others accomplished one goal of their trip: "To build relationships and let them know we're not all warmongers." He said he plans to keep in touch with Iraqi friends he made. Mendez said that Iraqis he met believed that attacks would begin last week, and they feared for the safety of his group. The Iraqis said little about Saddam, he said, perhaps out of fear or perhaps because they are tired of talking about it. But Mendez said that one point was clear: The majority of Iraqis don't want war.There have already been U.S. bombings in no-fly zones in Iraq. U.S. officials have released few details about casualties, but Mendez said Iraqi reports indicated that six people were killed in bombings while he was there."When the sirens go off, people don't even respond anymore," Mendez said. "They just resolve within themselves that what's going to be is going to be."• John Railey can be reached at 727-7288 or at jrailey@wsjournal.com
