Stepping outside of her comfort zone has never been an issue for Mabel Brunk, the 83-year-old Goshenite who recently returned from a peacekeeping mission to northern Iraq.

Conducted through Christian Peacemaker Teams, an international faith-based organization aimed at promoting nonviolent alternatives to war, Brunk returned from the three-week trip late last Saturday ready to share her story with the world.

“We were a delegation of three people that were going to visit a CPT team already established in Kurdistan, which is located in the northern part of Iraq,” Brunk said. “The goal of the trip was really to learn what the CPT team is doing in Kurdistan, finding out what the prominent issues are, and then bringing that message home to our local communities and our government.”

Brunk said the Kurdish people are currently the largest ethnic group in the world without their own state, and have been persecuted for many years by many different groups, the most recent of which involves almost daily confrontations with the bordering countries of Iran and Turkey.

Currently, Brunk said, the United States controls the airspace above Kurdistan and allows the Turkish air force to fly over and bomb the Kurdish border villages. At the same time Iran is sending rockets over the border into those same villages.

“Over 100 villages are located along the Iran border, and they’ve all been hit” she said. “It’s not safe to live there any more, and many have been forced to evacuate.”





While both the Turkish and Iranian governments say they are attempting to target a local group of Kurdish terrorists, Brunk said that any such group has long since been disbanded or destroyed, leaving only local civilians to take the brunt of the near-daily bombings and rocket attacks.

“One of the things we hope to accomplish with this trip is to try and convince our administration to no longer allow the Turkish air force to have free rein over these villages,” Brunk said. “It’s not that we feel like we’re going to accomplish great things through these trips, but we’re trying individually to spread word of the needs of the people there.”

During her visit, Brunk also made an unforgettable stop to the Kurdish town of Halabja, the site of the largest and deadliest chemical weapons attack directed against a civilian population to date.

The attack occurred under Saddam Hussein, she said, who conducted many such attacks against the Kurdish people during the Iran/Iraq war. While there Brunk spoke to two men who where children when the city was bombed. One of the men was out of town during the bombing and didn’t know his entire family had been killed by the poison.

“Their stories were so powerful, and it’s those stories I think that are the most meaningful part of these trips for me,” Brunk said. “One can read about these things, or watch them on TV, but when you see them in person and hear their stories first hand, there’s really nothing like it.”

Brunk is no stranger to such harrowing tales. Her latest visit marks her third trip to the war-torn nation in six years.

After the Korean War, Brunk said she became affiliated with the Mennonite Central Committee and has been interested in peace and relieving world hunger ever since.

Her first trip to the country was made with a CPT delegation in February 2003, just before the war began.



Now 83 and living at Greencroft, Brunk said her passion for peace has only grown with time — due in no small part to the love and support she receives from family and friends.

“I think initially they were concerned with the idea of my traveling to these dangerous places, but I think they’ve learned that this is what I feel,” Brunk said. “Now they pray for me and also help me financially, because just this last trip I needed to raise $3,500 in order to go. I definitely have a lot of prayer support from my church and my friends.”

As for what’s next for the Goshen peace activist, Brunk said she has already begun compiling a list of venues where she will speak on the experiences and observations of her most recent trip.

“I think the most important message I can convey right now is the realization that when anyone in the world suffers, it affects all of us,” Brunk said. “We need to be ready to listen to stories, and work with people and help them find ways to live with each other so that this violence does not continue.”